The acronym, which has so far only been used for sporty combustion models such as the Golf GTI, should also identify related electric models in the future, Thomas Schaefer, head of the VW brand, announced on Sunday evening at the premiere of an electric. GTI study for the IAA Mobility Motor Show in Munich. “With ID. With the GTI Concept, we bring the GTI DNA into the electric age,” said Schaefer.
A series version is expected to arrive by 2027. The new model is part of CEO Oliver Bloom’s strategy, according to which individual brands should differentiate themselves more from each other in terms of design, but also share more technology and production facilities to reduce costs. “With a sharp design identity, we create attractive products and enhance the distinctiveness of brands,” Bloom said at a group event. Unlike two years ago, IAA innovations once again emerged early. Bloom’s predecessor Herbert Diess had almost entirely abandoned vehicles in the IAA preliminary program two years earlier.
Brand boss Schaefer previously announced in an interview with dpa that he wants to bring eleven new electric models to the market by 2027, one more than previously announced for 2026. Schaefer explained that they wanted to show how the brand’s model names, which are familiar from combustion engines, could be transferred to the electric age.
“It’s clear that we will not abandon iconic names like the Golf, Tiguan and GTI, but rather move them into the electric world,” says Schaefer. As of now, the brand’s E-models don’t have names, but numbers like the ID.3, the sporty model with GTI appended to it instead of GTI.
