{"id":902545,"date":"2026-09-23T13:20:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T13:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/902545\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T13:20:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T13:20:12","slug":"not-the-golf-this-hot-hatch-is-vws-most-powerful-gti-yet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/902545\/","title":{"rendered":"Not The Golf: This Hot Hatch Is VW&#8217;s Most Powerful GTI Yet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<\/p>\n<p>In honor of the 50th anniversary of the GTI, Volkswagen has unveiled the new ID.3 GTI, an all-electric hot hatch that also happens to be the most powerful production model to ever brandish <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slashgear.com\/1671851\/what-does-gti-stand-for-volkswagen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the Volkswagen GTI name<\/a>. The rear-wheel-drive EV sends a total of 240 kilowatts (or 326 horsepower) to the rear axle for 545 Nm of torque; that amounts to a 0-to-100-km\/h time of 5.6 seconds and an electronically limited top speed of 200 km\/h. That&#8217;s 124 mph, but you really only need to know that purely for context because it&#8217;s not coming to the U.S. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slashgear.com\/1214647\/volkswagens-id-3-update-is-going-to-upset-american-drivers-even-more\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Like previous ID.3 models<\/a>, Volkswagen only plans to sell this in Europe and the U.K. Pre-orders open up in early 2027.<\/p>\n<p>The numbers alone make the ID.3 GTI worthy of note, but let&#8217;s focus in on exactly what&#8217;s so interesting about what Volkswagen&#8217;s doing here. Rather than trying to make an electric hatchback imitate a gasoline car, VW&#8217;s gone and built the GTI around an electric motor&#8217;s immediate power delivery and rear-wheel-drive layout. Its 79-kilowatt-hour usable battery gives drivers up to 601 kilometers (or about 373 miles) of WLTP range, and DC fast charging can take the battery from 10% to 80% in about 29 minutes at rates of up to 183 kW.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                Aesthetics of the ID.3 GTI, both inside and out<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, the ID.3 GTI&#8217;s proportions come more from the electric ID.3 Neo rather than the Volkswagen Golf R. The front end has that familiar red GTI stripe running above a transparent light strip;\u00a0below that, you have a black honeycomb lower grille, red vertical accents, and a splitter-style lower section that call back to the GTIs that came before. Its 20-inch W\u00f6rthersee alloy wheels are yet another nod.<\/p>\n<p>The cabin is much the same, as far as GTI branding goes: The same red-and-black theme and tartan pattern, a red stripe across the dashboard, and a red 12 o&#8217;clock marker on the steering wheel, all in reference to the original 1976 Golf GTI. You also get a dedicated GTI button, which activates a new driving mode that adjusts the motor, steering, and DCC suspension for what VW\u00a0calls &#8220;maximum sportiness.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And, to be clear, the ID.3 GTI\u00a0won&#8217;t be a full replacement for the broader Golf lineup. It will simply stand as an electric alternative to the traditional Golf-based performance hatch, just with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.slashgear.com\/1844145\/what-does-id-stand-for-volkswagen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the Volkswagen ID branding<\/a> attached. Volkswagen is still going to put out a 2027 Golf R as well.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n    &#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; In honor of the 50th anniversary of the GTI, Volkswagen has unveiled&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-902545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}