2016 Golf GTE Review – Can the Hybrid Golf Make up for VW’s Mishaps?

Published: 14 February 2016Updated: 22 February 2016

With the recent scandal that struck a massive blow to VW’s reputation, the carmaker went on to produce a green car like nothing happened; that car is the 2016 Golf GTE, a hybrid car with lots of technology packed in. For 75 years Volkswagen has been a fine example of German engineering and all that has been reduced to a company of liars and tricksters following the scandal. Can the green Golf win back the trust of the European hatchback market?

2016 Golf GTE Review - Can the Hybrid Golf Make up for VW’s Mishaps?

The GTE in 2016 Golf GTE Stands for Grand Turismo Electric, in More Ways Than One.

Emissions scandals aside, you’re here for the 2016 Golf GTE; the plug-in hybrid variant of the car maker’s popular hot hatch series. VS says the GTE is not your run of the mill boring plug-in hybrid, the decision to base it off the Golf GTi; the car’s hot hatch counterpart hints that this is not your ordinary hybrid; at least, that’s what VW says. But can being sporty along with eco-friendly balance together?

If you’re familiar with the current generation Golf GTi there’s not much difference in looks aside from the GTE badging, under the hood you can find the 1.4 literTSi and an electric motor. It has five modes: pure electric, electric plus, battery hold, battery charge, and auto hybrid.

Being equipped with a big battery, the GTE is 300 kilos heavier than the standard Golf but still is agile and sporty nonetheless in which it can do 0 – 62mph in 7.6 seconds, not bad. On pure electric, the Golf GTE can go up to 31 miles fully charged. Couple this with the 1.4 petrol, it can go up to 580 miles on a single tank with VW’s claimed 166mpg. Now comes the question: how about emissions? It is rated at 39g of CO2.

Not only does the Golf GTE feature an electric motor, it is also packed to the gills with high technology such as adaptive cruise control and auto parking. Owning an electric car adds the additional responsibility of managing the cars range and thankfully this is covered by the car’s intuitive animated displays to provide helpful-easy to understand information for the driver. The connectivity options in the car is teeming with Bluetooth, a SatNav, aux ports, USB ports, even a hidden CD player in the glove box. And driving the electric Golf is as sporty as its turbo GTi counterpart.

With the 2016 Golf GTE being like the GTi in driveability, there’s not much to complain on that department. The interior while high tech, it does suffer some issues; the touchscreen is resistive meaning it can only handle single touch input, and the auto parking only works well in straight roads. Overall, it is a plug-in hybrid with hot hatch potential. Though it does offer lots of technology, it would be better if they worked well enough.

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