The new Mk8.5 Golf has been confirmed with the continued production of the GTI and GTE versions but the end of the road has come for one of the most popular company cars of years gone by, the GTD.
Kai Grunitz, head of technical development for Volkswagen, said the decision to kill the GTD was taken to focus development on the eHybrid and GTE plug-in variants.
There are still a couple of diesel variants of the Golf but the most sought after version the GTD is no longer.
GTD had been a mainstay in the Golf line-up since it came back with the Mk6, having originally featured on the first three generations of the hatchback - even surviving throughout the diesel gate scandal and through to the pre-facelift Mk8 Golf. With this generation of the Golf marking the end of the internal combustion engine for the nameplate, however, it’s all but certain the GTD badge will be confined to the history books.
Volkswagen have though confirmed that the Golf model itself will continue with it due to feature a ninth generation version.
There were concerns the similarly sized and popular ID3 would impact the Golfs survival but VW have confirmed they full expect the next version will be fully electric.
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