New Volkswagen ID.Polo GTI: the first electric GTI is slower than the old one

The Volkswagen Polo GTI has never quite hit the spot in the same way the Golf GTI. Each and every iteration somehow failed to fully replicate the traits of a truly engaging hot hatch. Now though, the hot Polo has been given its biggest shake-up since its original launch 28 years ago. It’s gone all-electric in the shape of the new VW ID.Polo GTI.

Not only does this mark a huge change for the Polo GTI, it’s an even bigger one for GTI as a whole, as this is the first electric model ever to wear the badge. Until now, mildly tweaked variants of Volkswagen’s electric ID. products have only gone as far as the middling ‘GTX’ badge, but now they’re gone all the way with GTI – according to Volkswagen passenger cars CEO Thomas Schäfer, there’s much more to come too… 

> New Cupra Raval review – EV hot hatch targets the Alpine A290

ID.Polo GTI technical details

The starting point of the ID.Polo GTI is a strong one, as the ordinary ID.Polo is already 50 per cent stiffer than an ordinary combustion-powered Polo thanks to the use of torsion rings at the front and rear. The GTI doesn’t get an increase in chassis rigidity as a result, but what it does receive is single-valve DCC adaptive suspension, a 35 per cent increase in spring stiffness and a 15mm drop in ride height. The anti-roll bar is stiffer too, and to allow for a 1 degree increase in negative camber, it has unique wheel carriers at the front. 

The power steering system in the standard ID.Polo is integrated right into the rack as opposed to the column as in most cars. This makes for improved feel, according to Volkswagen, but the GTI takes this one step further with a quicker ratio.

An output of 222bhp from the new front-mounted APP290 (for 290Nm of torque) electric motor puts it 18bhp ahead of the old 2-litre four-cylinder Polo GTI, but it’s not all good news. The 0-62mph sprint has dropped by three tenths to 6.8sec, and the previous 150mph top speed has now been slashed all the way down to 109mph, at least partially down to weight gain of 185kg. 

You’ll be pleased to hear that, unlike rivals like the Alpine A290, this car comes with a real, clutched mechanical limited-slip differential. The new Cupra Raval adopts the exact same powertrain setup, but Volkswagen says that car’s chassis has a slightly harder edge.

Range and charging

Range on a full charge is said to come in at 262 miles, which is quite some way ahead of the 235 miles of the Alpine A290. There’s no huge battery at play here though, as the GTI’s pack has an identical 52kWh capacity: Volkswagen says its car gets its range from the more efficient motor. 

Developed and produced in-house, the motor’s inverter, gear system and oil cooler are fully integrated into the housing for improved rigidity and longevity, with improved internal cooling reducing the requirement for heavy rare earth materials. It also features new software to mimic the inertia of a combustion engine, which prevents the motor from spinning to maximum RPM under complete traction loss – Volkswagen says this will make the GTI less snappy on the limit.

It’s not just the motor that’s created in-house, as the cell-to-pack battery behind it all features a cell design developed by PowerCo, a division of Volkswagen. This pack now features a top cooling plate for improved thermal management, with the design making the fitment of a new pack with a completely new battery chemistry entirely possible at the time of a future facelift. Peak charging speed stands at 105kw to allow for 10 - 80 per cent charge in 24 minutes.

Interior and exterior design

Design is typical GTI, with red highlights beneath a full-width front light bar, similar red highlights on aggressive lower honeycomb-style grille, and 19-inch diamond cut wheels that are unique to this car. At the rear, there’s a sporty new two-part ‘diffuser’ section to make its performance credentials known from a distance. This all builds on the standard ID.Polo’s charming, squat stance to make it an appealing performance hatch, if not quite as distinctive as something like the Alpine A290.

The cabin adopts all of the new quality of life improvements first seen on the standard ID.Polo, with plenty of attention paid to material quality and ergonomics. The GTI expands on this with plenty of red highlights in the form of a 12 o’ clock marker on the new sports steering wheel, red contrast stitching, a red strip across the width of the dashboard, the same on the door cards and GTI badging on the seats and steering wheel (the latter illuminated). 

The new MEB+ platform this car is built upon has allowed for some very clever packaging, improving interior width, headroom and luggage capacity by quite some margin. Behind its steering wheel you’ll find a pair of paddles and while they’re only for regen, for now, Volkswagen says there's more to come in this department…

As ever, the driver gets a digital dashboard (10.25-inches) for all vital information, with the central infotainment display being a 12.9-inch unit in this case. What makes these unique is the software behind them, as while they can display Volkswagen’s ordinary (and pleasantly snappy) operating system, the press of a button can have them switch to a retro theme referencing the design of the original Golf. This gives you retro-style dials on the driver’s display, a CRT TV-style navigation window on the central display, and even changes the media player to a cassette player graphic, in which the tape winds as the track progresses. 

There’s no official price for the new Volkswagen ID.Polo GTI just yet, but given its sibling from Cupra is priced from £34,995 spec-for-spec, expect a similar starting price here.

Volkswagen ID.Polo GTI specs

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