The head of sales and marketing at Volkswagen has revealed that the Wolfsburg-based brand is planning “extreme” new additions to its high-performance “R” stable.
Speaking to Auto Express, Jürgen Stackmann admitted that VW’s GTI- and R-badged models were currently down on power compared with their traditional rivals. But that, he insisted, was set to change.
“The R brand is going extreme and can go extreme. The role of R is that it can go beyond the pure rational; nobody needs a compact car with 400 bhp, but there is a place, certainly, and that’s the turf of R,” Stackmann told the British publication, hinting that a 300 kW Golf R variant could be on the way.
Indeed, the report suggested that the upcoming Golf 8 would be the one of the first models to be conceived under this new, more extreme strategy, adding that R-badged versions of the T-Roc and Tiguan crossovers were also on the cards.
“With a little more expressive design, R can go beyond the rational side of things. It can find its place in a different league of pure performance and there’s a space where customers are willing to pay a significant amount of money,” he added.
Interestingly, Stackmann furthermore revealed that the R brand would eventually incorporate models from VW’s upcoming all-electric ID family of vehicles.
