VW is planning an electric hot-hatch all-wheel-drive version of the ID.3

VW is planning to make a hot-hatch ‘R’ version of the ID.3 with the higher performance delivered by an all-wheel-drive electric powertrain, but it will likely take a while.

Jurgen Stackmann, VW’s head of sales, said that the German automaker plans to electrify its ‘R’ performance cars.

He told Autocar:

“If there is a future for R it must be electric, it’s very simple. It won’t be next year, because we need to define what R is in the electric world.”

However, Stackmann believes that the range compromise for electric performance cars is too big at the moment.

But he believes that will change within 5 years:

“We should be able to deliver something meaningful in under five years but it takes a team of developers, and it’s tough without a lot of expertise at the moment. We have to start that journey.”

Frank Welsch, VW’s head of research and development, said that a performance version of the ID.3 is on top of the list, but he also noted that the ID.3 is already quicker than the GTI:

“We should have the same as cars such as the Golf, the GTI and R. People like performance and I’m sure people will love performance in ID cars too. The situation is different – even in the normal ID, we have good performance right from the very beginning, you just touch the pedal and you feel the punch. From 0-60km is like the GTI. No GTI is faster than the ID 3. At the upper end, of course GTI is better.”

When asked what kind of upgrades an ‘ID.3 R’ would get, the executive said:

“We need four wheel drive and a performance e-motor. It won’t be called GTI, let’s see whether it’s R or something else.”

Welsch agrees with Stackmann that it would be done within 5 years.

Electrek’s Take

We need this.

I have been dreaming about an electric hot-hatch forever, especially since I’ve seen what Renault did with the Zoe e-Sport RS Concept – though they never brought it to market.

How hard would it be for GM to add a second motor to the Chevy Bolt EV and now for VW to add one to the ID.3?

Plenty of people would buy it for the all-wheel-drive capability and at the same time, it would make for a crazy fun performance hatchback and a monster for autocross.

I think they would also serve as great flagship models for the less expensive variants and boost their popularity.

Make it happen people.