Today’s ICE-Powered VW Golf Might Have 10 Years Left In The Tank

The current combustion-powered VW Golf could live on until 2035 a VW engineer claims.
It would then be forced out of production by a planned ICE ban in Europe and parts of the US.
VW will introduce an all-new electric Golf 2026, but it now looks like that car will sell alongside the existing Golf.

When VW unveiled the ID.2all concept in 2023 it was giving us a little glimpse of what to expect when the all-new, all-electric VW Golf drops in the second half of this decade. But that car’s arrival won’t mean the end for the combustion Golf. Not according to a VW engineer who says today’s hatch could live on until 2035.

Speaking to Top Gear NL, VW’s Kai Grünitz suggested that today’s Golf, or at least an evolution of it, might still be around until the EU ban on emissions-producing cars comes into force in 2035. Though an exemption for e-fuels might provide a loophole for some combustion cars, it’s more likely to save ICE-powered supercars than regular petrol-powered sedans, hatches and SUVs.

VW facelifted the Golf, which is now only available in GTI and R trim in the US, this year, but it will certainly need at least one more major refresh to extend its lifespan another 10 years. And if it does stick around until 2035, it will be able to trace its DNA at that point right back to 2013 and the introduction of the Mk7 Golf, the first to use the MQB platform. The new Golf EV, which arrives in 2026, will ride on an entirely separate EV-only architecture, and not the MEB kit used by today’s ID cars, but a new Scalable System Platform (SSP).

It’s not hard to see why VW might want to keep the ICE Golf going until regulators finally force it off sale. Customer demand for EVs hasn’t matured in the way automakers, including VW, expected, but demand for the Golf has skyrocketed in recent months.

Today’s ICE-Powered VW Golf Might Have 10 Years Left In The Tank — ID.2all concept previews 2026 Golf EV

Sales of the Golf in Europe grew 43 percent in the first half of 2024 versus the same period last year, pushing it into second place in the charts behind Dacia’s bargain-priced Sandero. VW’s T-Roc and Tiguan SUVs gained no ground whatsoever in H1, and the Tesla Model Y, the best-selling car in Europe overall last year, slid 26 percent to eighth place.

VW has already confirmed that it will sell GTI-branded EVs in the future, but we’ve got our fingers crossed that if it does choose to keep the combustion Golf going for another decade, the GTI and R are also part of that plan.