The Up! GTI just became the latest hatchback to join the proud tradition of performance at Volkswagen, but for the foreseeable future, it will be the last.
That’s according to a report from England’s Autocar that quotes brand boss Herbert Diess as saying that the brand is satisfied with the Golf, Polo, and Up! GTI.
“I think with the three [GTI models] we have now, we are set,” Diess told Autocar. “GTI for us is ‘the’ hot hatch: a sporty car, classless, with potential for everyday use and accessible for many. It should be this car—a hot hatch.”
Rumors about the GTI badge finding its way onto the T-Roc—a roughly Polo-sized SUV in the product pipeline—have been around since the T-Roc was first announced, but those rumors were quashed back in April.
“Yes, of course, I could imagine more powerful engines and it has been prepared for the eventuality,” Frank Welsch, VW’s head of product development, told Autocar in April. “I wouldn’t call it a GTI — an SUV isn’t a fitting car for that badge, perhaps — but I could imagine it as an R.”
Diess suggested, instead, that the brand’s hot hybrid selection might grow. “With any model line-ups, you have electrification coming. There is broader possibility for GTE than GTI,” he said.
Despite that, he said that a Polo GTE is not being planned, saying that the Polo’s position in the market precluded the badge. Instead, he hinted that other models could get the GTE treatment sooner, though he wouldn’t say which.
[source: Autocar]
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