VW Golf GTE

The GTE’S powertrain may be unconventional in its class, but it adds new ways to get a thrill from driving

HOW DO YOU DEFINE ‘THE THRILL of driving’? It’s a question I’ve been pondering quite a lot recently after spending plenty of time in our GTE.

For most of us, evo’s slogan brings to mind images of open roads, a chassis dancing on the edge of grip and an engine singing at the top of its voice; or taking to a track and acing apexes with millimetric precision. Yet if you’re like me, there’s much more to driving than that. Just the act of getting behind the wheel generates a tiny tingle of excitement, even when it’s for something as mundane as the daily commute or slotting a car into a tricky parking space.

Then, of course, there’s the process of driving itself; mastering all the tricks and techniques. And this is where our Golf comes in, because the more time I spend in it, the more I realise my ‘ thrills’ are being generated by a nerdish desire to tailor my driving to maximise the hybrid powertrain’s potential.

For starters, it doesn’t take long before you’re juggling between its various modes, working out when to deploy a burst of electricity and when to fall back on petrol propulsion. Yes, you can let the computers decide how best to distribute the energy, but I find you get the greatest satisfaction and the best results when you take charge yourself. And when I say ‘best results’ I mean mpg not mph. Now, there’s a strong argument that this sort of talk should have no place within the pages of evo, but bear with me, because this approach brings its own rewards – and I don’t just mean the financial kind.

One of the first things to get to grips with is the Golf’s regenerative braking function. Lift off when the transmission’s in its B mode and the retardation is surprisingly strong – strong enough that the brake lights are illuminated when you’re fully off the throttle. Hone your anticipation and it’s possible to make reasonably lengthy trips without once touching the brake pedal. Not as thrilling as balancing a car on the edge of oversteer, I’ll grant you, but still a surprisingly absorbing experience.

I’ve also learnt that it’s best to use the electric motor below 60mph – above this the batteries are drained quicker than a reservoir in a drought. It’s also best to keep around eight miles of electric range in reserve, as dipping below this often results in the petrol engine acting as a generator to top up the cells, which sends the fuel consumption skyrocketing – defeating the object of running a hybrid.

There’s also the challenge of making the most of the Golf’s altered weight distribution. Drive really hard and the added mass of batteries and motor mean the GTE isn’t as assured or as composed as a GTI or GTD, but dial back a fraction on your commitment and you can start to exploit the extra weight over the rear axle, using it as a pendulum to point the Golf’s nose towards the exit. It’s a very subtle weight transfer – we’re not talking Porsche 911 here – but it’s yet another aspect of the GTE’S dynamic make-up that requires learning and exploiting.

Okay, so I admit that the Golf’s keys will never be the first I grab when there’s a dash across Welsh mountain roads to tackle, and as a hot hatch it’s seriously flawed (more on that in a later report), but the challenges presented by its powertrain make it a surprisingly engaging daily driver. On that basis it delivers on ‘ the thrill of driving’. Just.

Dateacquired August 2017 Totalmileage 4896 Mileagethismonth 841 Coststhismonth £0 mpgthismonth 62.8