Volkswagen Golf GTE Review & Prices

The GTE is the somewhat sporty, plug-in hybrid model in the Volkswagen Golf range. It looks just as purposeful as the Golf GTI and offers almost as much electric range as the regular Golf eHybrid, but it’s not very fun to drive.

It sits in a middle ground between efficiency and sportiness, but it’s really more of a no-man’s land, because Cupra Leon E-Hybrid aside, there aren’t any other PHEV hot hatchbacks on sale. There are plenty of petrol-powered options such as the BMW M135i, Skoda Octavia vRS and Audi S3, or you could check out the all-electric Volkswagen ID3 GTX and Cupra Born vZ.

Think of the Golf GTE as the Goldilocks of the hot hatch world, because it’s not too hardcore, nor is it too efficiency-focused. That either makes it just right, or the Jack of all trades, depending on your point of view.

On appearances, however, the Golf GTE is almost identical to the petrol-powered GTI. You get the same sporty body kit, slender headlights and door badging on the PHEV, but where the GTI gets one large exhaust tip at both ends of the rear bumper, the GTE’s pair are hidden away. The iconic red GTI grille stripe is blue here, too.

The interior, again, is a spitting image of the GTI. The difference being that the Golf GTE has bespoke tartan fabric on the seats featuring a blue stripe in the weave, with matching trim on the steering wheel and blue ambient lighting around the cabin. As with all Golfs, there’s a large (and fiddly to use) 12.9-inch infotainment touchscreen and a clear driver's display behind the three-spoke steering wheel. The haptic climate control sliders are a pain to operate on the go.

It’s not exceptionally spacious inside, but while tall adults in the back will find their legs cosied up to the front sports seats - which also obstruct the view out a little - there are plenty of storage cubbies. The 273-litre boot is small, though, losing all of the regular Golf’s under-floor room to the hybrid batteries.

The Golf GTE only comes with a single powertrain option: a 1.5-litre petrol engine paired to an electric motor and battery setup for a combined 272hp. That means 0-62mph in 6.6 seconds and an electric-only range of 81 miles to a charge, which is very impressive.

In town you’ll feel the biggest benefit to the plug-in hybrid setup, because the GTE gets away from the lights quickly and quietly. Unfortunately, it’s a double-edged sword, because the extra weight of the electrical gubbins means the car thumps its way through potholes, even if speed bumps are well absorbed.

The regenerative braking is handy in traffic, but as a result the brake pedal feels spongier than it does in a petrol or diesel model. The extra weight has also dulled the Golf’s sporty edge on a twisty road, as you feel more body lean into corners than in a GTI. Get onto the motorway and the suspension settles down, but there’s a fair amount of tyre roar which makes its way into the cabin.

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Starting at a hair over £40,000, the Golf GTE is nearly £2,000 cheaper than the full-fat Golf GTI but almost £4,000 more expensive than a regular Golf eHybrid in Match trim. The Cupra Leon E-Hybrid shares the same engine as the Golf eHybrid but has even sportier looks than the GTE and comes in at around £39,500.

It may come as standard with the excellent tartan interior trim, GTI-style body kit and more power than other cars with a similar plug-in hybrid engine from Volkswagen, Cupra or Audi, but it’s hard to justify the extra cost over a Golf Style eHybrid. That car is not as fast or aggressively styled, but it’s more comfortable, offers greater electric range and costs around £3,000 less than the GTE.

The plug-in hybrid engine offers great range, but the Golf GTE is neither very comfortable nor fun to drive

In town

The Golf GTE certainly has its merits around town, because it’s a very easy car to drive when you’re sitting in traffic or navigating tight streets. Forward visibility is excellent and the steering is lighter than you might expect from a hot hatchback, while the electric motor does a good job of smoothing out the automatic gear changes which can be notchy in petrol-powered Golfs.

You have plenty of shove away from the lights, and being able to drive in electric-only mode means no engine noise to disrupt conversation - or your favourite tunes. Unfortunately, the Golf GTE is unsettled by potholes which thud through the cabin as a result of its sporty suspension.

It’s comfortable over speed bumps, that being said, and the switchable regenerative braking makes it easy to come to a stop in traffic, barely touching the brake pedal. When you use the brakes, however, you’ll notice a sponginess to them compared to other Golf models. The 360-degree parking sensors are handy, as is the rear-view mirror, but its swivelling function is irritating until you get used to it.

On the motorway

Getting up to motorway speeds is a piece of cake in the GTE, with enough power on tap to make the most of any slip road. Overtaking doesn’t require too much pre-planning, either, and you can drive at the national speed limit in pure electric mode.

Doing so, however, highlights the road noise that makes its way into the Golf’s cabin. It’s more noticeable in the GTE than it is in a regular Golf or even the sportier GTI, and while the suspension does a generally good job of absorbing bumps and dips, you certainly notice rough stretches of tarmac through the steering wheel.

Standard-fit adaptive cruise control takes the strain out of long distance journeys, while the blind sport warning system is useful when making lane changes at speed.

On a twisty road

Point the Golf GTE down the same road as a GTI and it becomes clear that the plug-in hybrid model isn’t quite as sharp or well composed as its petrol counterpart. Its powerful engine and strong brakes make it easy to pile on and scrub off speed, and there’s plenty of grip, but it’s not very fun to drive quickly.

There’s more body lean than you’d hope for from a hot hatchback, and while the steering is accurate and precise (especially in sport mode), the Golf GTE just doesn’t feel as willing to carve through corners in the way that a Honda Civic Type R or Audi S3 is. The stiffer suspension to cope with the extra weight means it gets bounced around more on a bumpy lane than a Golf GTI does, too.

It’s easy to find a comfortable driving position in the Golf GTE, but the boot loses too much space to its hybrid batteries

The Golf GTE’s sensible roots are evident throughout its interior, but that’s a good thing because the Golf has one of our favourite cabins of any family hatchback. The GTE’s sports seats are the same as in the R-Line, GTI and rapid Golf R models. They’re supportive, highly adjustable and comfortable for most journeys, but we found the fixed headrests can induce a bit of a neck ache on long drives.

Storage up front is good, too. You get large, felt-lined door bins which can take a large water bottle as well as assorted odds and ends - without them rattling about as you drive along. There’s a bit of hidden storage between the front seats, a narrow slot for keys or pens, sturdy cup holders and a phone charging pad with a built-in shelf underneath the dashboard.

Space in the back seats

Back seat space is adequate in the Golf GTE. There’s plenty of headroom, but travelling with three adults in the back is a bit too cosy; the middle seat is both narrow and hard. Long-legged individuals will find their knees getting intimate with the front seat backs if the car is full of six-foot-plus individuals.

A set of handy pockets in the front seat covers mean rear passengers have somewhere to slot phones or other small gadgets, while the large door bins can easily take drinks bottles. The middle seat back folds down to reveal a pair of cupholders.

Boot space

In day-to-day life the Golf GTE’s boot feels no different from a regular Golf - until you realise there’s no under floor storage space, meaning you can’t drop the boot floor down for some more depth, nor can you hide the charging cable bag.

The lack of lower space means the boot drops in size from 381 litres to just 273 litres in capacity, which is even less than the 351 litres you get in the smaller Volkswagen Polo. In fairness, this affects all hatchbacks which share the same hybrid system, including the Audi A3 eHybrid and the Cupra Leon E-Hybrid.

The sporty seats, colourful accents and fun fabrics mean the GTE feels sporty inside, but the climate controls are jarring

The Volkswagen Golf’s trump card has always been its grown up, premium-feeling cabin, and the GTE takes the same recipe while adding in a little bit of spice in the form of handsome bucket seats and a smattering of blue trim details.

Aside from the little touches here and there, the cabin is otherwise the same as any other Golf model. The infotainment system is fairly quick and features pleasant graphics - as does the driver display - but the menus are head-scratching and the climate control sliders are a nightmare to use on the move.

There’s a handy shortcut menu, that being said, which you can personalise and appears when you swipe down from the top of the display. Volkswagen has also fitted the GTE with a chunky steering wheel that features real buttons, unlike the Golf R which gets annoying, haptic clicky items instead.

Cabin quality is high, with loads of lovely, soft-touch plastics in all the right places. Venturing below the dashboard, beneath the armrests and on the lower centre console exposes harder, scratchier materials, but that’s par for the course on a hatchback of this price.

Volkswagen claims an astronomical 212.4mpg for the Golf GTE, which is impossible to achieve in the real world - unless you can get away with driving around in EV mode for massive periods of time. That being said, you’ll easily see around 65 miles of the GTE’s claimed 81-mile electric range if you drive sensibly.

We only managed to achieve 27.9mpg with the battery flat, so make sure you keep the battery topped up if you want to offset the GTE’s increased price compared to a regular petrol Golf R-Line.

The Golf GTE has a low rate of first year road tax thanks to its CO2 emissions of 30g/km, though you’ll pay the luxury car supplement through years two-to-six on account of its over-£40,000 list price. Company car drivers looking for a hint of sportiness ought to consider the GTE as it sits in a low Benefit-in-Kind rate, too.

The Golf GTE shares its five-star Euro NCAP safety rating with every other Golf model, which it earned when tested in 2022. Its highest scores were achieved in the adult and child occupant criteria, scoring 88% and 87%, respectively.

There is a pair of ISOFIX child seat anchor points in the back, while the Golf GTE also comes with automatic emergency braking, blind spot monitoring, active cruise control with speed limit recognition and lane keep assist as standard.

Volkswagen came 27th out of 31 manufacturers in the 2025 Driver Power survey for owner satisfaction, and there’s no two ways about it, that’s a poor result - especially for a brand with such a strong legacy for dependability.

While the earliest examples of this Golf generation had extremely glitchy infotainment systems, we’ve not heard any horror stories about more recent examples with heavily updated software.

You get a three-year, 60,000-mile warranty with the Golf GTE which is totally unremarkable. It’s on par with Audi, but both Mercedes and BMW offer a higher mileage cap on their hatchbacks, while Kia and Hyundai offer longer warranties. Toyota and Suzuki still lead the way with their ten-year, 100,000-mile warranties.