Volkswagen is getting ready to wind down its combustion engine programs and has revealed which of its models will be the last to be launched with a traditional gas-slurping motor.
That model is the all-new T-Roc crossover, which is being prepped for a 2025 launch, VW CEO Thomas Schäfer told reporters from Germany’s Automobilwoche in an interview that helps us better understand how the company will start its journey towards a full-EV lineup.
But while the T-Roc is the the final new combustion model to be introduced, it isn’t the only new ICE VW to arrive between now and 2025. The new European-market Passat, which is twinned with Skoda’s Superb, and will only be available in wagon form, and the new Tiguan SUV will hit the road in 2024. But tightening emissions legislation could spell the end for the little Polo, whose place in the lineup will be taken by the production version of this year’s ID.2all concept.
Schäfer also promised that the Golf would get a comprehensive facelift in 2024 to keep it relevant and desirable until close to the end of the decade. That upgraded Golf, which sounds like it could be billed as Mk8.5 would still, of course, retain combustion power, but Schäfer says there are no gasoline or diesel engines planned for the genuinely new ID.Golf arriving around 2028. That will be EV-only and will be built on VW’s in-development SSP platform for electric cars.
Related: VW ID.2all Concept Is A $27K EV That Beats Tesla To The Punch
The VW boss says it will feature recognizably Golf styling cues, including a flatter roof than today’s similarly-sized ID.3, explaining that while it’s important to carry on iconic badges like ‘Golf’ and ‘GTI’ in the electric age, it’s not enough to simply slap those badges on any old electric car.
Schäfer pointed at the recently revealed ID.2all concept as an indicator of where VW’s design is heading. He suggested that cars like the ID.3 were created at a time when “people wanted to be be different and to reinvent Volkswagen,” conceding that the strategy made sense when the company was trying to make it easy for customers to distinguish between electric and ICE models. But now VW, and its new head of design, Andreas Mindt, are planning a return to the clean lines and high quality interiors the firm was previously known for.