Fast but not furious
ALL us oldies know about the Golf GTI that started the hot hatchback breed back in the late 1970s. Actually, I reckon Alfa Romeo invented the concept earlier with its Alfasud, but that’s by the by.
The Golf made the small hatchback with a powerful engine part of the car enthusiast’s vocabulary.
What VW certainly did invent was the hot diesel hatchback in 1982 when it revealed the Golf GTD. Now the firm has used its powerful GT badge to add appeal to e-vehicles.
GTE was used earlier on an electric Golf so the company has added an X instead, giving us the first of the breed: the ID.4 GTX.
Interesting that Volkswagen has decided to debut its EV performance brand on a crossover rather than on the ID.3 hatchback – but that’s no bad thing as we found the ID.3 to be rather underwhelming and prefer the ID.4. But what about a high performance electric crossover? Does that work?
Before we answer that question, a brief look at how a regular ID.4 becomes a GTX. The big news is that this is the first electric VW that’s fourwheel drive. The regular electric motor on the rear axle is joined by a 107bhp motor driving the front wheels.
This combo gives a total available horsepower of 299PS – significantly more than the next ID.4 down which has 205PS. That version is the Pro Performance, and like this GTX it has the bigger 77kwh battery fitted (other ID.4S have a 52kwh battery).
As we’ve discussed many times since the start of the EV revolution, performance takes on a new meaning. What matters more to customers?
A very fast 0-62mph time or range and charging speed? I think I know the answer. The ID.4 GTX, which incidentally can do 0-62mph in 6.2sec, has a range of 301 miles against the Pro Performance’s maximum of 322 miles.
The GTX is the fastest ID.4 but it is also the heaviest at a lardy 2,149kg. Sports suspension is standard which lowers the ride height by 15mm.
Above this £48,525 car is the GTX Max (for £55,555) which has no more performance but includes VW’S DCC adaptive dampers as standard. They might make a difference but I doubt they turn the GTX into an electric sports car.
Although it looks it on paper, the GTX doesn’t feel quick. The accelerator response is woolly and quite a few EVS with less impressive figures feel more potent away from the lights.
The brakes are effective but feel soft and unsuited to enthusiastic driving. Ford’s Mustang Mach-e does the best job of being an electric crossover that’s fun to drive but even that is outshone by a humble Fiesta for making its driver grin.
The good news is the ID.4 GTX, like its humbler siblings, is a quiet and comfortable motor with excellent seats and a spacious interior. There’s very little wind noise and even on large wheels the ride over bumps is smooth.
The Ford Mustang Mach-e might be better to drive but it loses out to the ID.4 on space.
The VW has a less sloping roof and also has a considerably larger boot that holds 543 litres to the Ford’s 402 litres. Again, it all depends on your priorities.
Up front we have the same dash as the ID.3 and the same much-criticised infotainment display and lack of switches and buttons. The heating and volume capacitive touch controls aren’t even backlit.
What’s particularly annoying for an electric car is the battery percentage is hidden behind three menus on the system – it needs to be front of house.
Perhaps in the future there will be EVS that are as fun to drive as an old-school hot, or even warm, hatchback, but I doubt they’re going to be SUVS or crossovers.
Certainly there’s nothing about the ID.4 GTX that causes me to think otherwise. door crossover has sporting
Hyundai Ioniq 5 Ultimate Eye-catching styling, excellent range and even more performance Price £49,640
Tesla Model Y Long Range AWD
Long range, fast and a great charging network. It’s got the lot. Price: £54,990
Last week we showed you a teaser snap of the Kia EV9 at the LA Motor Show. Well here’s a proper image of it. Technical details are sparse, but the Korean company makes a big thing of the car interior’s three ‘modes’. Active is for when the car is on the move but the other two are for when it’s not.
Pause Mode modifies the interior into a lounge by turning the first and third row seat passengers to face each other, and the second row forms a table. Then there’s Enjoy in which the third row seats swivel around and the tailgate is opened. I think go for a campervan if I wanted that flexibility.
This beauty is the Ferrari Daytona SP3, the latest super exotic from the legendary Italian sports car company.
The Daytona SP3 gets its name from the famous P3 and P4 racing cars that managed a 1-2-3 finish at the 1967 Daytona 24-hour race.
The modern tribute car is powered by a naturally aspirated V12 engine that produces a colossal 840bhp, making it the most powerful engine ever fitted
(PEGI 16) Xbox X/S, Xbox One, PC Release: December 8 Microsoft was clearly determined to make this the best game it could, pushing its release back from November 2020, to late 2021.
There are many reasons to be excited for Master Chief’s new outing, not least as Infinite is being billed as a ‘spiritual reboot’ for the entire Halo franchise.
The third chapter of the ‘Reclaimer Saga’, it sees Master Chief playing a more central role than in Halo 5: Guardians.
Unlike in previous titles, multiplayer in Infinite is free-to-play, and it’s been in open beta since mid November, to mark the franchise’s 20th anniversary.
Whatever your plans are this month, you might want to think about cancelling them to spend some serious time with this game. (PEGI 3) Switch Release: December 3 In essence this is a learning game, but before you start rolling your eyes, let me tell you why these can actually be a lot of fun.
If you like to challenge yourself –