But Volkswagen has been doing this for far longer, even before the European Union set its ambitious new emissions targets. This resulted in the death of some of our favorite Peugeots while other companies have stopped trying long before.
The next Peugeot 308 GTi should be a hybrid, and our sources inside VW tell us a performance T-Roc is also on the agenda. The technology is all there, and the company is crunching the numbers to see if it can make a buck. Besides money, the other main problem is branding.
Because it's got a lot less poke than the 300 HP T-Roc R, the natural thing to do is to call it a T-Roc GTI. But the badge is sacred for them. The Germans are probably going to have to figure out a new name, and SEAT may have similar problems.
The boss of their Cupra brand recently confirmed that the Cupra Leon hot hatch will debut next year with a 245 horsepower hybrid drive. This has been shown in numerous concepts, like the Formentor and Vision RS, and is believed to be the future of performance vehicles. It consists of a 1.5 TSI and an electric motor with about 50 km of battery range.
While taxation for these hot e-mobility cars is being lowered in Germany, the serious stuff is getting more expensive by the day. The basic Polo GTI now costs €25,210 and the Golf GTI is over 35k, an increase of about 1,500 euros in both cases compared to last year.
