ID. Polo GTI

It will be a race weekend all about the three legendary red letters: Volkswagen is celebrating 50 years of the GTI at the 24h Nürburgring (14-17 May 2026) – marking half a century of driving pleasure and motorsport passion. At the same time, the Volkswagen brand is opening a new chapter in the anniversary year and will unveil the new ID. Polo GTI in the unique atmosphere at the Nürburgring on Friday. For the first time, an all-electric model will bear the renowned GTI badge. However, the world premiere is just one highlight of this special GTI weekend: just one day later, three Golf GTI Clubsport 24h cars will compete in the world-famous endurance race.

The countdown to the new ID. Polo is on: Just a few months before its world premiere, a fleet of almost production-ready ID. Polo prototypes is covering the final test kilometres in numerous regions worldwide. The goal: to achieve the highest quality and perfection in detail, as well as fine-tuning the driving characteristics.

Volkswagen will be presenting the results of three years of intensive development work at the IAA MOBILITY 2025 (8-14 September) in Munich, signalling the brand’s new direction. Inspired by the phrase “True Volkswagen”, the company has really honed in on typical Volkswagen strengths such as clean design with recognition factor, high standards of quality, an attractive price-performance ratio, intuitive operating concepts and innovative technologies.

The start of something new. Volkswagen has developed a brand-new portfolio of small and compact electric vehicle models in Europe and for Europe. Affordable electric vehicles for city life or weekend breaks, for commuting to work and heading off on holiday. Good value for money, a new design language, visible and tangible quality, technologies at the level of the next higher class and intuitive operation are factors that are common to all Volkswagen electric vehicles. The new models are called the ID. Polo, ID. Cross, ID.3 Neo, ID. Polo GTI and ID.3 GTI. They mark the start of a new era: True Volkswagen. At the heart of it all is a focus on our intrinsic strengths with the aim of bringing electric mobility to the masses with innovative and affordable Volkswagen models, made in Europe, for Europe.

A bestseller becomes electric. Volkswagen has reinvented the Polo, a vehicle that has been sold more than 20 million times: 50 years after the debut of the first generation, the first electric version of the bestseller is ready to go with the new ID. Polo. Official pre-sales will start in around just five months – at the end of April 2026. The final test drives to fine-tune the new Volkswagen are currently underway around the globe. As part of these test drives with still camouflaged pre-production cars, Volkswagen is now opening the doors of the ID. Polo to the international media for the first time. It will be the first production model to be based on the technology from the new evolutionary stage of the modular electric drive (MEB) platform: the MEB+. With the enhanced hardware and software from the MEB+, Volkswagen is bringing a new range of innovations on board its ID. models. These include a new electric front-wheel drive developed specifically for the more compact VW product lines – this is used as a new feature in the ID. Polo. In the smaller vehicle classes, the new drive system offers significant advantages in terms of both available space and price. To give you an idea of the price point: the entry-level ID. Polo will be launched in many markets at prices of less than 25,000 euros. This compact Volkswagen model has been a collaborative project within the Brand Group Core: CUPRA was responsible for project management, whilst the Volkswagen Design Centre in Wolfsburg was where the design process for the ID. Polo took place. The electric Polo’s essential technologies – e.g., the assist systems, drive, running gear and steering – are based on the MEB+ modular system developed by Volkswagen. The ID. Polo is built at SEAT & CUPRA’s Martorell plant in Spain, making it a true European.