And Now for a
300Kw Plug-In GTi!
Let’s accept the inevitable. The
term “petrol-head” may soon be
redundant as car-makers point
towards an era where even the
hottest of hatches come with
plug-in power.
Volkswagen is easing us into this
way of thinking with its Golf GTE
Sport Concept, which made its
motorshow debut at Frankfurt,
but was shown to archetype
VW fans at a special Golf-orientated show in Germany earlier
this year.
The body of this slammed, befinned GTi-inspired street machine is made up mainly of
carbon-fibre, and beneath
the… err…sheet-carbon (as
opposed to sheet-metal, you
understand?), there are three
engines employed.
The petrol one is a VW Motorsport-developed WRC four-cylinder, displacing 1,6-litres of internal
combustion finery. There are, in
addition, two electric motors, one
mounted up front, one at the rear.
Torque for all three motors totals
some 670Nm and power is fed
through to the planet via an allwheel-drive system and sticky
low-profile rubber.
The acceleration is said to be
brisk, with a 0-100km/h time of
4,3 seconds and a top speed
of 280km/h. Interestingly, Mercedes-Benz achieves this sort
of pace with a turbocharged
two-litre motor in its revised A
45 (see the cover-story in this
edition of MoneywebDRIVE).
The big trick with this plug-in VW,
however, is that it has the capability to run 50km on pure electric power, and has a combined
consumption apparently measured at just 2,0 litres/100km.
Torque for all three
motors totals some
670Nm and power
is fed through to the
planet via an allwheel-drive system
and sticky low-profile
rubber.
The interior is super space-age,
with a go-kart-like “butterfly”
steering control and just two
highly-stylised seats that don’t
look too comfortable.
No doubt VW is softening us up
for the era ahead when “Juiceheads“ will be the term for those
with a bent for mind-warping
acceleration.
What's impressive about the Golf GTE concept is that it has such strong GTi styling cues and
the Golf Sport GTE concept interior has go-kart-like steering wheel, radical dual seats
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