► Everything we know about the Mk9 VW Golf
► People’s hatch will go electric using SSP platform
► Will arrive in 2028, alongside a petrol version?
Some extra details about the all-new ninth-generation Volkswagen Golf have been revealed by brand boss, Thomas Schafer. The next version of the company’s perennial family hatchback will break cover in 2028 – and it’s shaping up to be a big change.
It’ll go electric thanks to the Volkswagen Group’s new SSP architecture – and it’ll get a technological overhaul that’ll hopefully banish the last of foibles (such as the ridiculous touch-sensitive climate controls) we found with the Mk8 model.
However, Volkswagen has softened its approach to electrification slightly. In interviews with several company executives at a preview event for the facelifted Mk8 Volkswagen Golf R, CAR magazine has learned that there’ll be a petrol version of the Golf on sale alongside the electric model until the 2030s. Scroll down to learn more.
Volkswagen Golf Mk9: the family hatch goes electric
We’ll get the big news out of the way first. The next Golf will be battery-powered, which isn’t a massive shocker considering current automotive trends. Tightening legislation is forcing mainstream car makers to either adopt EV power or die – or at least settle for selling far fewer cars than they’re used to.
In January 2024, Volkswagen boss Thomas Schafer said: ‘There will be a Golf [in the future], and it will be a true Golf in terms of packaging and drivability. In the line-up that we are proposing up to 2028, we will probably put the Golf directly on the SSP platform.’
SSP is the Volkswagen Group’s silver bullet. It means the firm will no longer need to faff about with sets of platforms for different classes of car. Currently, it uses MEB for its smaller cars and PPE for its larger and more premium ones.
With SSP, there’ll be just one enormously scalable toolkit that can, figuratively, shrink as small as a city car or power a mega-sized luxury SUV from Bentley. The first cars on SSP are expected to arrive in 2026, and Volkswagen AG says it expects up to 40 million vehicles across the Group brands will utilise the architecture by 2030.
Another point to make is that, under the current strategy, the Golf won’t be linked to an ID nameplate. We won’t see a car called the ID.Golf, for example. ‘Iconic names that are definitely decided and that will be carried into the future are Golf, Tiguan and GTI,’ said Schafer. ‘The others [like Polo, Passat etc.] we will look at as a case-by-case basis.’
Volkswagen Golf Mk9: infotainment and technology
This hasn’t been a strong point for Volkswagen recently. The rather dodgy MIB3 infotainment software that was introduced on the ID.3 and Mk8 Golf was widely panned for its extremely laggy responses, overly complicated menu design and dumb usability errors with its haptic steering wheel buttons and non-backlit controls.
But, Volkswagen’s head of technical development, Kai Grünitz, assures us that’ll change for the next car. ‘We won’t bring any car to the road like you’ve seen with Golf and ID.3 with thousands of faults,’ he said.
Indeed, we’ve already noticed that Volkswagen has listened to our complaints. The firm’s new MIB4 infotainment system, as fitted to the new Passat estate (below), is a huge improvement. The system reacts much faster to inputs, there are customisable slots on the screen for quick access to common functions and the climate controls always reserve the bottom band of the display.
We also raised our concerns with Michael Blaul, Volkswagen’s product marketing manager, at the recent Golf R preview event. We told him we weren’t that impressed by Volkswagen’s decision to stick with touch-sensitive climate controls for the new Passat, especially when the near-identical Skoda Superb has far more user-friendly rotary dials.
He explained the internal politics at Volkswagen, saying: ‘What happened with this was our manager pushes the whole electric way of life and, in his opinion, everything has to be clean with no physical buttons. That was his idea.
‘And when they went for the developing process for the Passat and the Skoda, they said okay – no, Volkswagen idea is do it everything based on touch. My personal opinion is, okay, do it with the electric versions because the customer will oblige and will say okay, we go this way. It’s easier to set the mindset that way with EVs.’
However, Blaul recognised the issue with this approach, especially in a car that was designed to appeal to an incredibly broad market. ‘Changing that way with the Golf 8 was a mistake,’ he said. ‘It was a mistake because we had those loyal customers and we made a revolution instead of an evolution – and Golf was always evolution.
‘The people loved the evolution. Nobody wants a Golf who is having an exterior design where everyone says – wow, what a car! That’s not the idea of a Golf.’
Volkswagen Golf Mk9: could become the first R-badged EV
The boss of Volkswagen’s R divison, Reinhold Ivenz, told CAR magazine that the performance brand will break into the electric car game within the next five years. That means the first R-badged EV will arrive in 2029, which lines up perfectly with the launch of the Mk9 Golf.
Ivenz said: ‘the future for us will be electric. It makes sense for us. In the moment, we look about the concepts – but for us it’s very important that the car is authentic also in the electric world. We will start, and we can say that in the next five years we will launch our first electric car.’
This move means Volkswagen’s GTX branding is unlikely to survive past the current generation of EVs – and the performance expected of an R-badged Volkswagen can only be realised thanks to the Group’s new SSP architecture.
In January 2024, Schafer told us: ‘R will probably only be with the SSP platform. To do that [level of performance] with MEB+ would be a stretch – and R has to be four-wheel drive in that space. All of the ICE models will still be available as an R for now, but then we’ll switch to SSP in 2028.’
That’s certainly convenient timing for an all-new, all-electric Golf R. Let’s see what the future brings. We’ll keep you updated with all the latest developments.