Volkswagen to dump GTX badge for hot electric vehicles

Volkswagen resurrected the GTX badge to denote its heated-up electric cars, but it looks set to replace it with GTI and R variants.

Thomas Schäfer, CEO of the Volkswagen brand, told Autocar, “GTX is the performance brand of the MEB [EV architecture], but we’ll work our way back to GTI and R in the next products going forward”.

The change will likely take a few years to sweep through the Volkswagen EV range, with Mr Schäfer clarifying “the current products, this is what it is, but future products will go back to a clear portfolio [of GTI and R]”.

Volkswagen gave an indication this was going to be the way forward when it unveiled the ID.GTI concept in September 2023, which is based on the earlier ID. 2all concept.

The production version of the ID. 2all, sized between the Polo and Golf, is expected to go into production from 2025, while the front-wheel drive GTI variant should start trundling down the factory line from 2027.

According to the Volkswagen brand’s CEO, there’s still some debate within the company about how to use the GTI and R sub-brands, principally centring on the question: “How do we position GTI?”

According to Mr Schäfer, “GTI is traditionally performance and front-wheel drive” with the R reserved for “for four-wheel-drive performance”. He said both sub-brands would have “clear genes going forward”.

The picture with the current selection of GTX models is a little more muddied. There are GTX versions of the ID.3 tall hatch, ID.4 crossover, ID.5 crossover coupe, and ID.Buzz people mover.

While the ID.3 GTX is rear-wheel drive, the ID.4 GTX, ID.5 GTX and ID.Buzz GTX are all all-wheel drive.

All GTX models have more power and torque than their lesser siblings. They also have sportier styling and retuned handling, but the changes are not as clear a leap over other models compared to GTI and R cars.

At the time of writing, the only Volkswagen models with GTI versions are the Polo and Golf. There’s a much broader selection of R vehicles, including the Golf, T-Roc, Tiguan, and Touareg.