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The 2020 Volkswagen Golf Needs to Cook a Little Bit Longer
The seventh-generation Volkswagen Golf was introduced on the European market a staggering eight years ago, and it arrived on U.S. soil four years later.
You may not have noticed how fast the years have slipped past the Golf 7 but Volkswagen has, and it’s now busy fine-tuning the new Golf 8.
We’ve been hearing up until a few days ago that Volkswagen will pull the wraps off the hatchback this year, but that won’t happen. German magazine Bild reported that the automaker is busy curing some glitches that are marring the Golf’s state-of-the-art digital system.
Automotive News Europe asked VW about it and, while the manufacturer did confirm there are some niggly little issues with the Golf 8, they aren’t the reason for the delayed launch – or at least that’s what
VW wants us to believe. Instead, the move is one with ’Sales’ written large on it as the marketing department reckoned that launching the Golf in late November or December would harm the Golf. The news comes merely days after Volkswagen had actually confirmed, during its Annual Media Conference that the Golf 8 will be here before year’s end.
Juergen Stackmann, Volkswagen’s Chief of Sales and Marketing, told Automotive News Europe that “it’s better to come early next year with a full-throttle offensive. It doesn’t have anything to do with production. It’s a sales decision since you don’t try to put cars under the Christmas tree when no one is paying attention.” Stackmann also turned the potentially woeful situation into a positive one adding that, by postponing the Golf’s launch, it will get “the exclusivity it deserves,” as it won’t have to fight for headlines during the Frankfurt Auto Show week in September.
The eighth-generation Golf won’t mark a revolution, rather an evolution in keeping with the model’s core values as the same Stackmann explained to Autocar Magazine during the Geneva Auto Show.
“People want a Golf – it’s iconic – but now there’s a huge leap forward in the digitization inside it. It’s still a Golf, but now digital. It’s kept what people have loved and moved it to the next phase.” This is also underlined by the Golf 8’s underpinnings, an evolution of the 7’s MQB platform (which should translate in a 100-pound weight drop for the new model). The styling is, similarly, nothing to write home about. We’ve seen the car undisguised already and, while it looks a bit sharper and a bit bigger, it’s unmistakably a Golf.
To fill the gap left by the Golf 8, it’s understood that VW will bring to the Frankfurt Auto Show the first model of the I.D. family – the 2020 I.D. Neo. Originally, the Neo was supposed to drop a few weeks later during a special launch event, but this won’t happen anymore. The imminent arrival of the I.D. fleets means that we won’t have an eighth-generation e-Golf because VW wants its customers to choose an I.D. model when they want an electric VW. Instead, the Golf will feature mild hybridization with both 12V and 48V mild-hybrid systems on the table right now. What seems to not be on the table are the Golf Estate and the three-door version of the popular hatchback, both on the verge of being ditched.
Another thing that will come with the new Golf (or maybe even sooner on the I.D. Neo) is the latest evolution of Volkswagen’s badge. The legendary circular logo with the V on top of the W has been around ever since the company was founded in the ’30s. Now, it seems like the logo will get a retro makeover with both the V and the W looking thinner.
There’s also a larger between the two letters and the W no longer touches the circular frame.
These are all minute details, but VW fanatics are sure to geek over them endlessly.
Further reading
Read our full speculative review on the 2020 Volkswagen Golf.
Read our full speculative review on the 2020 Volkswagen ID Neo.
Read our full speculative review on the 2020 Volkswagen ID Crozz.
Read our full review on the 2016 Volkswagen ID Concept.
Read our full review on the 2017 Volkswagen I.D. Crozz II
Read our full review on the 2017 Volkswagen I.D. Crozz
Read our full review on the 2017 Volkswagen I.D. Buzz.
Source: Automotive News
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