The GTX edition of the Volkswagen ID.3 electric car is a hot hatch with big boots to fill. They may not be the same boots but they are, figuratively speaking, quite large.
What I’m saying is merely bringing the inevitable to the front of house; the ID.3 GTX will be compared in as much detail as it takes to sift the similarities with the differences of perhaps the greatest GTi of them all, the Golf.
Could the GTX be the one? Well, it does many, or most, of the things that Volkswagen hot hatches have done for such a long, long time. There is lashings of power – only in the GTX it’s instantly available because as you know electric cars are blessed with 100pc torque from the second it takes off.
Like the ‘old’ GTis, those behind the new GTX, have also fitted larger tyres (tick), evolved a stiffer suspension (tick) to heighten sportier handling while blending solid good looks (tick) by wafting little design cues across its hatchback frame.
One profound difference between the pair would be that this electric hottie, like its more conservative siblings in the ID.3 stable, is driven by the rear wheels, not the front ones as in the Golf.
And the GTX turns in a pretty good performance as a result. Pretty good indeed.
After experiencing the force of its thrust from a standing start, it felt like it could sprint a lot quicker and further than the prevailing top legal speed would allow. While I couldn’t swear to achieving a zero to 100kmh official time of 5.7 seconds, it certainly felt like it was going somewhere fast and bound for highly illegal speed territory with me behind the wheel. My attempts to reach the official time was tempered with caution. So I was well down the 100kms club.
The smoothness of the acceleration was quite something though. Like it did throughout my drives, there was a lack of any fuss or intrusive noise.
Indeed, some of those separating the pros and cons of this electric offering might, dare I say it, have felt it was too well tuned and refined simply because it turns on the torque at any speed you wish and then goes like hell without as much as a sporty grunt. Some people like a reminder of how primeval a fast car could sound.
It was prompt (and did I mention ‘quiet’ already?) and flying as it responded to anything it was asked to do – be that shoving it into a bend and feeling it cope so well you’d used to be with petrol-driven hot hatches and cornering abilities. But there is an apparent contradiction: it lacked enough driver feed that would win over some Golf GTi aficionados.
Another thing the GTX was not capable of managing, was giving much better steering feedback than I wanted. I mean the steering gives a car its feel and function. With a hot-hatch competing at these levels, that is a crucial bit of missing vitality.
But there is no denying how well it behaved itself overall, especially on those bad, mean roads. It took them without losing any poise or being put off track or line of drive.
As it happened a lot of the driving was long-distance – Dublin to Belfast – with several runs around town and into Wicklow.
The ID.3 GTX is the first Volkswagen electric hot hatch driven solely by an electric motor and it is an impressive piece of work.
Battery size is 79kWh, claimed distance between refills is 595km, there is 326hp on tap while price before SEAI grant and VRT rebate is €45,585 and after the SEAI grant it’s €39,025.
I’ve just been driving the ‘Performance Plus’ (326hp, 0-100kmh in 5.7 seconds) version. This costs €41,258 on-the-road. I have to say those prices seem keen, given the car’s potency and practicality.
Added elements in the GTX include sport shock absorption, 20ins alloys and a scattering of GTX detailing.
Standard spec also includes a much improved 12.9ins infotainment display, adaptive cruise control, lane keeping system, IQ.Light LED Matrix headlamps.
GTX bumpers front and rear give it a bit of a muscle look. And there’s the latest ChatGBT app, front heated sports seats, 10-colour ambient lighting 2 USB-C ports, keyless access, park distance control, adaptive chassis control and harmon kardon sound system. Options on the test car included metallic paint.
And in one fell swoop this GTX buried one of the banes of my life: the gear selector is now on a stalk of its own – thank goodness the rubbish cyclops of a yoke that preceded it has been banished to the hell of bad taste.
This gets a slightly bigger battery (79Wh useable) than the ‘ordinary model’. Which you’d suspect would make it a harder take on energy.
That most definitely was not what I found at all. Quite the opposite. It was spot-on most of the time as the amounts consumed and remaining aligned fairly well and I could confidently eschew the charging point en route to Belfast – something I wouldn’t dream of doing in most cases.
Instead, I boosted my reserves on the way back. It’s so reassuring when you get a car like this. You just know if it says 110km remaining that you can bank on that.
I expected a much worse return given so much of my driving was on motorways and didn’t benefit from lower speeds and stop/start driving.
It shows there can be a happy medium between a bit of performance and frugality.
So what about it and the Golf GTi then?
Well both are good handlers, quick off the mark but the GTi shades it on good old-time driving experience. I’d have liked more steering feedback from the GTX.
In a way, both set separate benchmarks: the GTX delivers an impressive mix of technology, performance and, yes, greater sustainability. The Golf GTi stays as a benchmark for giving you that good-feeling feedback.
