Volkswagen and Rivian Are Working on a New Electric Golf

The e-Golf you see right here needed to die in order that the bulbous ID.3 might stay. Nonetheless, Volkswagen is getting ready a switcheroo. It plans to delete the combustion engine from its hottest automobile as soon as once more. When that occurs, the ID.3 is more likely to be axed, as Kai Grünitz, the pinnacle of technical growth, hinted originally of the 12 months. The automaker’s boss, Thomas Schäfer, has now revealed participant two is about to enter the electrical Golf sport.

Rivian is lending VW a serving to hand to develop the ninth-generation Golf. The brand new compact hatchback will likely be completely electrical and trip on the forthcoming Scalable Techniques Platform (SSP). A few weeks in the past, VW and Rivian launched their three way partnership price $5.8 billion to engineer electrical structure and software program for next-gen vehicles. We’re studying the Golf Mk9 will likely be among the many early adopters.

Talking with Automotive Information, Schäfer confirmed VW wants Rivian’s help to work on an entire reinvention of its legendary automobile: “We selected how one can do the software-defined car. It would occur with Rivian, the three way partnership, the place we put the brand new electrical electronics structure collectively. However we’ve additionally determined that we wish to begin this journey with a extra iconic product. So we’ll begin with the Golf.”

We definitely didn’t have a VW+Rivian Golf on our bingo card, nevertheless it exhibits how a lot the automotive trade is altering as legacy automakers need assistance from tech-savvy newcomers. The electrical Mk9 isn’t coming anytime quickly, although. The highest brass from Wolfsburg mentioned we’ll have to attend till 2029 to see the automobile, a “actual quantity product” with some massive sneakers to fill.

Because it received’t be launched within the subsequent 4 years, VW nonetheless has loads of time to enhance the ID.3 we talked about earlier. A totally redesigned model with higher {hardware} and a higher-quality inside that includes extra bodily buttons is coming in 2026. Logic tells us there will likely be an overlap between the ID.3 and the electrical Golf since VW is unlikely to drop the previous after solely three years.

When the electrical Golf arrives in 2029, it received’t spell the tip for the conventionally powered mannequin. The Mk8 launched in late 2019 with gasoline, diesel, and plug-in hybrid powertrains might stick round till 2035. That’s when the European Union promised to ban gross sales of recent vehicles that generate dangerous emissions, successfully outlawing the combustion engine.

The e-Golf redux received’t be the primary VW product to profit from Rivian’s know-how. Schäfer mentioned Audi and Porsche will prepared the ground, with vehicles arriving as early as 2027. When the three way partnership was launched earlier this month, the 2 firms mentioned their new electrical structure and software program expertise could be appropriate with “all related car segments,” as small as subcompact vehicles.