The most powerful VW GTI of all time isn't a Golf: welcome to the VW ID.3 GTI

This is all the VW ID. Polo’s fault. Y’see, when Volkswagen announced it would make a hot hatch tearaway out of its new electric supermini – click here to see what we reckoned to the normal version – it insisted the ID. Polo was worthy of the three most special letters in the Volkswagen universe: GTI.

And that left the fast version of VW’s next electric car up, the ID.3, in an awkward position.

If it stuck to calling it ‘GTX’ (which literally no-one understands) it would be admitting that it wasn’t worthy of being a GTI. Hardly screams ‘BUY ME’, does it?

But if VW was going to badge an ID.3 as a GTI, it would need a colossal heap of improvements to stop the die-hard fans storming the factory with flaming tartan seats and exhaust pipes sharpened into lances.

It’s chosen the second option. And the first bit of good news is the new ID.3 GTI is based on the new ID.3 Neo. So there are buttons galore on the steering wheel and amid the centre console. It’s no longer made out of plastics that Lego rejected for being too hard and shiny. And it’s got VW’s latest battery tech, so it has more range than a robo-hoover.

The second bit of good news is it’s the most powerful GTI Volkswagen has ever made.

Okay, it’s only pipping the Golf GTI 50 by a measly 1bhp, but still, that’s a statement. In the Golf’s half-century year of hot hatch legendariness, it’s being usurped by a battery-powered box. Rude!

In fact, the ID.3 GTI’s 326hp goes to the back wheels, like no Golf GTI ever. Despite weighing two tonnes (ugh, but doesn’t everything these days?) the GTI scampers to 62mph in 5.6 seconds, which is almost as quick as the most potent petrol GTI. Top speed is respectable-for-an-EV, at 125mph.

As you can see, VW threw many GTI badges at the problem. Possibly too many. Plus Polo GTI-like 20in wheels, red fangs in the front grille to ape racecar towing hooks and lazy fake mesh around the back. It’s… not exactly sleek, but fair to say it’s the best looking ID.3 so far?

Inside, there was no escape from the GTI badge machine gun. The one on the steering wheel is actually a button to shortcut into the GTI driving mode, where the suspension stiffens, the accelerator pedal is ticklish and you get a sportier sound up to 50kph instead of 25kph.

But it must be said, proper hot hatch misbehaviour is AWOL. Volkswagen hasn’t bothered with the multi-mode fake engine sound, pops and crackles of a Hyundai N EV.

It hasn’t borrowed Porsche’s fake gearbox ‘eShift’ tech. And there’s no Drift Mode or any such tomfoolery. This is a sporty hatch, not a silly one. Which is why there are 30 colours of ambient lighting onboard instead.

Official range from the 79kWh battery is up to 601km, or 373 miles, which is enough to make you think you might indulge in that power and GTI’ness often enough to make it worthwhile.

So this is finally an ID.3 we might want to drive. But as VW’s world collapses around it, is this late showing of badging royalty too little too late?