VW ID.2all concept will add a hot hatch version

Volkswagen keeps adding ingredients to its electric vehicle pot, but we won’t know what fare the automaker’s going to serve us for a few more years. The Germans introduced the ID.2all concept this week, an entry-level addition to the ID hatchback range sized between the 160.3-inch-long Volkswagen Polo and the 168.7-inch-long Golf. Sitting on the MEB platform used by current products like the ID.3 and ID.4 and due by 2026, not only will the ID.2all inaugurate a new EV design language, it will also bring the brand’s new infotainment interface. And Top Gear reports the frugal electric hatch will be joined by a hot hatch variant. A VW exec told the outlet a “sporty version,” also FWD, is in the works, and, “Whether it will be a GTI or GTX or whatever, we will see.”

The standard ID.2all is expected to make 223 horsepower from a single motor on the front axle — there’ll be no AWD here, neither in plain nor spicy guise — and get from zero to 62 miles per hour in under 7.0 seconds. That’s already a little more output and quicker acceleration than the rear-driver, 201-hp ID.3 Pro Performance. The VW exec wouldn’t be drawn on specs for a production hot hatch ID.2all, telling TG those revelations would “be a surprise for the next time we see each other.” A bookmark comparison for now, though, would be the current VW GTI that sends its 241 hp to the front axle and gets from 0-60 in a claimed 5.1 seconds when fitted with the seven-speed dual-clutch transmission.

This encouragement to compare the ID2.all concept with the GTI, and the exec’s suggestion that the GTI name is at least a possibility, leads us to all sorts of questions about whether we’re looking at the next GTI. In league with recent news that the GTI and Golf R will go electric by the end of the decade, the spec chart begs for attention. The ID.2all and GTI performance numbers are already close, ID2.all dimensions putting it near enough to the GTI to provide similar interior room. This is pure speculation, but making the ID.2all a GTI successor could leave the ID.3 GTX to be a Golf R successor or the bones for such. The ID.3 is but an inch shorter than the Golf, and the ID2.all isn’t planned to get the hotter ID.3 and Golf R pack AWD drivetrains. We’ll know more when VW decides to dish on those surprises like horsepower and naming for the upgraded ID.2all.