Iconic next-gen hatchback teased: 2028 Volkswagen Golf appears in silhouette before the important new model heads into battle against Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, and Mazda 3

In an address to workers at Volkswagen's Wolfsburg headquarters overnight, VW AG Chairwoman of the General and Group Works Council Daniela Cavallo showed a teaser silhouette image of the upcoming, ninth-generation VW ID. Golf.

VW has flagged a mid-2027 shift of production location for the Golf 8.5 from Wolfsburg to its Puebla plant in Southern Mexico and Cavallo was keen to reassure the employees she represents that the move is designed to make way for ID. Golf manufacture in Germany.

It’s the first tangible glimpse of the new model, which is set to adopt pure-electric propulsion as well as the brand’s ID. naming convention prior to launching in 2028.

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Previewed by 2023’s ID. GTI electric concept, the ninth-gen ID. Golf is clearly an evolution of the Golf 8, which arrived in late 2019 with the current ‘8.5’ update following in early 2024.

Introducing the ID. GTI at the 2023 IAA motor show in Munich, Volkswagen Head of Design Andreas Mindt positioned the FWD hatch as “the first glimpse of the exciting GTI future because its series development has already been decided.”

So, the production ID. Golf is likely to share the concept’s full-width front and rear illumination, more prominent wheel arches and simplified, screen-rich interior (albeit with additional physical controls for key functions).

For reference, the ID. GTI measures 4104mm long, 1840 mm wide and 1499mm high with a 2600mm wheelbase, which makes it around 180mm shorter end-to-end, 50mm wider and roughly 35mm taller than the Golf 8.5 with the distance between the axles reduced by 36mm.

2023 Volkswagen ID. GTI concept

And given the German giant now owns close to 10 per cent of US EV specialist Rivan, expect to see leading edge powertrain tech and software architecture, the latter including over-the-air updates.

Model hierarchy is yet to be confirmed, but VW has already indicated publicly that internal-combustion power for the Golf is set to continue well into the next decade. Meaning further updates will keep an ICE Golf running in parallel with the ID. Golf EV, the two possibly moving towards shared variations of VW’s ‘Scalable Systems Platform’ to accommodate hybrid powertrains.