Volkswagen to revive GTI name with an electric twist

The arrival of the Volkswagen ID.4 and ID.5 GTX models seemed to spell the end for the German maker’s long-running line of high-performance GTI models… or so we thought.

A new trademarked logo has surfaced online that teases an all-new line of GTI-badged electric models, with a thunderbolt now replacing the ‘I’ in the iconic abbreviation.

Hot versions of the Volkswagen ID.4 and ID.5 electric SUVs currently wear the ‘GTX’ badge. However, speaking to DrivingElectric, VW boss Thomas Schäfer hinted at the fact that the ‘GTX’ moniker may eventually be replaced by ‘GTI’, saying: “The discussion we’re having now is to get the electric vehicles into performance and then carry the GTI name forward… GTX was an idea on the way to electrification; we came up with a different name. In future, whether we’ll need this or not, we’ll see. But GTI is so strong.”

With this in mind and the ID.4 and ID.5 due a facelift in the next year or so, we expect high-performance variants of each to instead wear the GTI badge. These aren’t the only fast electric VWs on the way, though; a GTX version of the upcoming 450-mile Volkswagen ID.7 saloon has already been revealed, but it’s possible that car’s badging and name could be swapped out for ‘GTI’ before it officially goes on sale.

We also can’t forget the maker’s forthcoming rival to the MG4 XPower, the Volkswagen ID.3 hot hatch which could also wear the ‘GTI’ badge, as a nod to its petrol equivalent, the Golf GTI. Speaking of which, Volkswagen has already showcased the ID. Golf concept car and if this model ever makes production, we can be sure that there’ll be an ID. Golf GTI version, too.

This is all speculation at this stage, however, as apart from filing the above logo to be trademarked, Volkswagen remains tight-lipped on whether ‘GTI’ will be the name of its future electric models. What we can say is it’s unlikely that this is a repeat of the ‘Voltswagen’ April Fools prank of 2021 as we’re quite a long way away from April at the time of writing.

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