I’m almost as much of a Volkswagen fanboy as Jason Cammisa, but the cool German brand from a few years ago is hard to recognize. The new GTI just doesn’t cut it in the interior quality department, and their electric revolution seems to be running out of juice. A case in point is the ID4 GTX, which is supposed to be the high-performance version of their electric SUV, but can’t keep up with the regular version of Kia and Ford rivals.
The Volkswagen ID electric car range has been teased and talked about for many years. Supposedly, the ID3 is going to be as great as the Beetle and Golf before it. But Tesla set the terms of this game, and performance is its name.
The ID4 GTX is supposed to be the GTI of Volkswagen electric vehicles. It costs a lot of money, comes with bespoke exterior design elements and a revised interior. It’s so expensive, in fact, that they decided not to sell the GTX in America.
While the design and marketing departments did their job, the output of the dual motors is inferior. In Germany, this is rated at 299 PS (295 hp), which puts the GTX at an immediate disadvantage compared to the most popular affordable EVs right now. The Kia EV6 (and Hyundai Ioniq 5) has a middle-of-the-road trim level called the GT-Line which is rated at 320 horsepower.
And if you want a fast EV crossover, there’s also the Ford Mustang Mach-E. And for this drag race, another average version was chosen, the dual-motor one with 350 PS (346 horsepower). What’s crazy is that Ford makes the GT performance model with 480 horsepower, and Kia just released the EV6 GT with 576 horsepower. Sports car killers!
Carwow has just released this brand new drag race which reveals that Volkswagen has lost its mojo. Simply put, the GTX loses to the Kia EV6 which has 25 hp more, and the Mustang Mach-E which has about 50 extra ponies. It’s interesting how the EV6 GT-Line is actually a little faster than it should be.
It’s pretty obvious that the launch control system in the ID4 GTX is partly to blame. But even if you ignore this outcome, both Kia and Ford are trying much harder to make family EVs exciting. Remember that the GTX is super-expensive and difficult to buy in Europe, yet you won’t see it drag racing Corvettes or Shelby GT500 (these are two famous Mach-E drag races).
