IndiaAIFounders — The Volkswagen ID.3 GTI is now the most powerful GTI-badged VW of all time

This is all the ID. Polo’s fault. You see, when Volkswagen announced it would make a hot hatch tearaway out of its new electric supermini, it insisted the ID. Polo was worthy of the three most special letters in the Volkswagen universe: GTI.

And that left the fast version of VW’s next electric car up, the ID.3, in an awkward position.

If the carmaker continued calling it ‘GTX’ (which literally no one understands), it would be admitting that the car wasn’t worthy of being a GTI. Hardly screams ‘BUY ME,’ does it?

PHOTO BY Volkswagen

But if VW was going to badge an ID.3 as a GTI, it would need a colossal heap of improvements to stop the die-hard fans from storming the factory with flaming tartan seats and exhaust pipes sharpened into lances.

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So, the brand has chosen the second option. And the first bit of good news is the new Volkswagen ID.3 GTI is based on the new ID.3 Neo. So there are buttons galore on the steering wheel and amid the center console. It’s no longer made out of plastics that Lego rejected for being too hard and shiny. And it’s got VW’s latest battery tech, meaning it has more range than a robo-hoover.

PHOTO BY Volkswagen

The second bit of good news is it’s the most powerful GTI that Volkswagen has ever made.

Okay, it’s only pipping the Golf GTI 50 by a measly 1hp, but still, that’s a statement. In the Golf’s half-century year of hot-hatch legendariness, it’s being usurped by a battery-powered box. Rude!

In fact, the ID.3 GTI’s 326hp goes to the back wheels, like no Golf GTI ever. Despite weighing two tons (ugh, but doesn’t everything these days?), it scampers to 100lph in 5.6sec, which is almost as quick as the most potent gasoline-powered GTI. Top speed is respectable-for-an-EV, at 201kph.

PHOTO BY Volkswagen

As you can see, VW has thrown many GTI badges at the problem. Possibly too many. Plus Polo GTI-like 20-inch wheels, red fangs in the front grille to ape race-car towing hooks, and lazy fake mesh around the back. It’s...not exactly sleek, but fair to say it’s the best-looking ID.3 so far?

Inside, there has been no escape from the GTI badge machine gun. The one on the steering wheel is actually a button to shortcut into the GTI driving mode, in which the suspension stiffens, the accelerator pedal is ticklish, and you get a sportier sound up to 50kph instead of 25kph.

PHOTO BY Volkswagen

But it must be said, proper hot-hatch misbehaviour is AWOL. Volkswagen hasn’t bothered with the multi-mode fake engine sound, pops, and crackles of a Hyundai N EV.

It hasn’t borrowed Porsche’s fake gearbox ‘eShift’ tech. And there’s no Drift Mode or any such tomfoolery. This is a sporty hatch, not a silly one. Which is why there are 30 colors of ambient lighting instead.

PHOTO BY Volkswagen

Official range from the 79kWh battery is up to 601km, which is enough to make you think you might indulge in that power and GTI-ness often enough to make it worthwhile.

So, this is finally an ID.3 we might want to drive. But as VW’s world collapses around it, is this late showing of badging royalty too little too late?

More photos of the Volkswagen ID.3 GTI 2027:

PHOTO BY Volkswagen

NOTE: This article first appeared on TopGear.com. Minor edits have been made.

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