A glimpse of VW's battery boosted Golf…

VW has given followers of the brand’s hot hatches an idea of what the next-generation Golf R could be.

The German automotive giant has revealed its latest battery-powered concept vehicle, amidst a concentrated strategy to reel in the electric drive advantage that Tesla has established.

VW’s CEO has publicly announced that Tesla is now the company’s target and main rival.

At an ice racing event in Austria this weekend, the surprise presence was that of a familiar Golf performance car silhouette, which made no noise.

The new concept car is VW’s eR1 e-Performance Golf and it features a hugely powerful electric power- and drivetrain.

With VW’s Golf 8 due later this year, some find it strange that VW’s built its future Golf-performance concept vehicle with current a GTI TCR Golf 7.5 bodywork. For VW, though, appearance is very much a secondary consideration to the eR1 e-Performance.

Look beyond the huge fenders and other aerodynamic paraphernalia and what powers this Golf is deeply impressive.

Volkswagen hasshown that it certainly has the expertise to build an immensely potent electric vehicle. It debuted the ID.R hillclimb car in 2018 and now that technology demonstrator’s batteries and electric motors are in the eR1 e-Performance Golf.

Although VW won’t confirm exact outputs for this all-wheel-drive, batter-powered, Golf concept, the ID.R serves a reliable reference point. This VWbattery has been rated asgood enough for 507 kW, which means even if there has been a slight detune for the eR1 e-Performance application, this is still a hugely powerful Golf.

Symbolically, the eR1 e-Performance is the firmest evidence that VW’s future Golf R models could feature a significant battery presence. Some analysts believe that for Golf 8, the R will remain solely internal-combustion, with VW electing to build a twin-ID.R performance hatchback, marketed in parallel.

What happens within the Golf 9 and its R-derivative, is where things could get interesting in terms of pure electrification.

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