Performance sub-brand’s bosses say they’re on the same path as VW. But what is coming and when remains clouded in mystery.

CONFIRMATION Volkswagen’s R performance division will follow the parent brand into electric commitment has been shared.

 So much about Volkswagen’s future rests on electric models, starting with the ID family that now seems close to officially representing here.

 Two high-ups from the performance arm who beamed in to today’s New Zealand Golf/Tiguan R media conference from Wolfsburg, VW’s home town, have confirmed that where VW goes, their outfit follows.

 Peter Jost and Jan Schiedek-Jacht, respectively hold responsibility for the R division’s sales and marketing and technical development.

 They concur battery performance models are inevitable. VW, after all, leads the pack worldwide by far with its investment plans for electric vehicles and batteries through to 2030.

 What those cars might be? Well, it’s too early to say. However, Jost says the R outfit, which formed 20 years ago to deliver the Golf R32, is committed to the same ‘way to zero’ electric car pledge as VW.

 “We as the premium performance division at Volkswagen are part of that way.

 “It will not go from today we have combustion engines and tomorrow we only have electric cars.

 “What I can tell is that, of course, we are working on the future and, of course, we are all walking in the same direction.”

 At the moment, R is still concentrating on the petrol cars it has in the market and those models will remain the primary focus “for the next two to three years.

 “But, of course, we are working on electric cars.”

 So will the R products cited for NZ this week be the final fossil-fuelled products from this arm?

 Jost offers this thought: “It’s my opinion that in this decade we’ll have three kinds of cars all around the world – ICE (internal combustion), PHEV (plug-in hybrid) and EV (pure electric).

 “VW will basically offer everything. Right now we (at R) will focus on the combustion engines and we will work at high speed on the future as well.”

 Are R buyers ready to go electric?

 “A very good question. We have different customers, they are not all the same type of person.

 “What we know from market research is that our customers are willing in respect to new technology. They are especially open for electric cars as well.

 “If you talk about the price segment our customers are more willing to pay a higher price than, say, the normal Volkswagen customers.

 “That is a good basis for the future because electric cars will be more expensive and they will have a little bit more innovation. I’d say our fanbase today is willing and open to that. That’s a good starting point.”

Might R progress to become a standalone brand with its own bespoke product, as Cupra has from SEAT to develop the bespoke Formentor?

 Schiedek-Jacht reminds the R recipe has always been constant - to take a VW product “and add the icing on the cake, add the performance bit to it. That’s our recipe and we have been very successful at that. So, I think we would be well advised to follow that success story.

 “We are part of Volkswagen, that’s why an R model has always been, and will probably always be, a Volkswagen product.”

 Reluctance to cite what battery-dedicated models are in line for the R treatment is not new. There’s been prevarication for years.

 The question is perhaps particularly relevant to Kiwis. An emergent taste here for electric mobility is obvious and VW New Zealand hopes to engage in that sector with some ID cars soon. A full strategy set to be outlined in a couple of months.

 Yet this country also loves performance German cars, not least the VW Group models. Hence why a new push of the brand’s R models is now under way.

 That campaign starts with the Golf R and Tiguan R here now and culminates with next year’s arrival of the Touareg R, their first electric-assisted model.

 Powered by a 14.3kWh battery, the SUV marries an electric motor with a 3.0-litre turbocharged petrol V6 engine. It can lend 47kms’ pure electric driving but the bigger attraction is the grunt. With a total output of 340kW and 700Nm this is the most powerful production Volkswagen ever made.

 For all that, the Touareg is described by VW NZ as representing a “soft entry” into the world of electric.

 What is for sure is that ID is as significant to VW as the Beetle was in 1945 and the original Golf in 1974 and that it is just phase one of the make’s electric onslaught.

 Arriving in 2026 is Project Trinity, in which all the elements developed in the first range of cars boil down into one entity.

 It's linked to Audi's Project Artemis but, while Audi's project is more for developing electric luxury cars for itself, Porsche and Bentley, VW is focusing on the accessible end of the market.

 The ID R name is already out there, being the name given a prototype electric hypercar unveiled in 2018 that has smashed lap records at famous sporting venues, from the Nurburgring to Pikes Peak.

 Back in 2020, VW Group board member Jurgen Stackmann asserted “the future of R needs to be and will be electric … the work going forward is and will be electrified.”

 That year Jost Capito, when the head of Volkswagen motorsport, suggested the first electric R might be based on the ID.3 hatch, though he also warned development would not be rushed.

 “We have the ID.3 …so, we feel we are in the perfect situation to do an electric R model. But first, we have to understand what is the excitement for a performance electric vehicle.”

 He also observed that while it’s “quite easy” to achieve impressive zero-to-100kmh times in an electric vehicle “I think electric cars must have more character than that.”

 Capito has since left VW. And the car industry. He’s now with the Williams F1 team.

 In the meantime, the most electrifying R of the moment is the quickest and most powerful production Golf in the model's history.

 The highest interest item is the First Edition that, at $82,990, notably configures with ‘drift’ and circuit-ready ‘Nurburgring’ settings bypassing the standard $77,990 car, which also lacks a sunroof, has a quieter stereo and a lower top speed – 250kmh versus 270kmh.

 Also availing and sharing the Golf’s 235kW/400Nm powertrain are the Tiguan R - $80,990 or $85,990 with a First Edition kit that’s a little less sporty than the Golf’s - and, from July the smaller T-Roc R, which has the same torque but 14kW less power.

 VW NZ says its model delivery timings have been hammered by huge production challenges hitting the parent, caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – where most VW wiring harnesses source – and the semiconductor crisis,. Yet it has still signed up just on 100 Golf R buyers, most going for the First Edition, and 167 Tiguan R intendees.

 As well as seeking to secure at least one ID model – likely the ID.4 – VW NZ is aiming to keep electric interest stoked by introducing plug-in hybrid versions of the Golf, the Tiguan and the Passat wagon.