Volkswagen Golf GTE (2015 – 2020) Review

If you're looking for the newer version, you need our Volkswagen Golf GTE review. 

If you also happen to live extremely close to your office, say within ten miles or so, then you’re just the sort of motorist whom the GTE could suit. A nightly charge should get you to work and back on electric power alone, and at the weekends, you’ve still got a perfectly serviceable family car for longer trips, so you won’t need a second car. It’s also a very enjoyable, comfortable and civilised car to drive and to sit in. A very worthy alternative to other mid-size PHEVs like the Audi A3 e-tron and Hyundai Ioniq.

The Volkswagen Golf comes in many different forms. S, SE, SE Edition, Match, Match Edition, R-Line, R-Line Edition, GT, GT Edition, GTI, GTI TCR, GTI Performance, GTI Clubsport, GTD, GTE, E, R: these are just some of the many monikers associated with Volkswagen’s all-conquering hatchback that signify various levels of equipment, power or sportiness.

However, within that vast bunch, you’ll notice the letters GTE, and that signifies rather more. That signifies that this version of the Golf is packing much more tech than your average hatchback.

And the tech in question is plug-in hybrid tech,  designed to give short-distance drivers all the benefits of an electric vehicle (or EV for short), while also completely eliminating range anxiety by also having a petrol engine to take over the reigns when the battery power runs out. Best of both worlds? Well, for the right sort of driver with the right sort of driving habits, it could well be.

For now, though, let’s park the fact that the GTE is a plug-in hybrid, and just consider its merits as a car. And even then, there’s a vast amount to like. For starters, it’s just as desirable as any other Golf.

It’s posh inside, it’s civilised and refined, and it’s enjoyable and as comfortable to drive. Sure, although it’s very quick, it’s not quite nimble enough to be the GTI-alternative that Volkswagen claims, but it’s still pretty darn good.

Like any other Golf, it’s also an ergonomic masterclass, with logical, easy-to-use controls and a fuss-free layout. Visibility is fab and equipment levels are decent, and that’s whether you’re talking about luxury kit or safety kit.

Granted, depending on the grade and age of the car you’re considering, you might not get sat-nav or Apple Carplay/Android Auto, and the boot isn’t quite as big as in a regular Golf, but otherwise, there’s very little to complain about with the GTE.

Not a cheap car by any means, but consider all the talent - not to mention technology - you’re getting for your money, it still feels well worth the outlay.

All Golfs do a great job on this score and the GTE is no exception, despite the considerable extra weight it carries. Rutted urban surfaces are absorbed with ease, and bigger bumps and ridges also pose no problem for the brilliantly polished suspension.

You might detect ever-so-slightly more of a wallop over bigger, sharper-edged potholes than you would in a regular petrol or diesel Golf, but the difference really is marginal, so this is a very comfortable car indeed.

This makes the car feel stable and secure, and if you seek out your favourite country road, there’s plenty of fun to be had. Granted, not as much as you’ll have in a GTI like VW claims, because the GTE doesn’t have quite the same crispness of steering or deftness of response, but to be fair, not that many cars can match a GTI for fun.

The GTE is powered by the combination of a 150PS 1.4-litre turbocharged petrol engine and a 102PS electric motor, giving a maximum combined system output of 204PS, and the propulsion system can be run in a variety of different modes.

In electric-only mode, the pace you get is more than enough for zipping around town, and the instantaneous responses and strong, seamless power delivery you get make the car feel very perky. You can travel up to 81mph in this setting.

On longer journeys, you’ll be best off using Hybrid mode, which juggles its two power sources for greatest efficiency.

This happens so smoothly and seamlessly that you’re rarely aware of which power source is doing the heavy lifting at any one time. Battery Hold mode runs solely on petrol power, so that the charge in the battery can be kept for when you arrive in a city where you’ll want to maximise your electric-only use, while Charge mode uses the motor like a generator to top up the battery on the move.

GTE mode, meanwhile,  combines the full force of both power sources for maximum performance. Don’t forget that the GTE badge’s resemblance to the GTI badge is no accident, and the hybrid version is very nearly as quick.

You’ll rush from 0-62mph in just 7.6 seconds, and thanks to the electric motor’s extra low-down urge, the first 30mph of that happens particularly briskly. It’s more than quick enough to put a very big smile on your face.

All GTEs come with automatic emergency braking as standard, but also linked to the system is adaptive cruise control that can maintain a safe distance to the car in front when you're plodding along the motorway.

All the usual tractions and stability aids are provided to help prevent you having an accident in the first place, and if one becomes unavoidable, there are seven airbags to help protect those inside, plus brakes that lock themselves on following an accident to help prevent further impacts.

Various other assistance systems - like lane keep assistant and blind spot warning systems - are offered, but only on the options list. Although the GTE specifically hasn’t been subjected to Euro NCAP crash tests, the regular Golf has. It achieved the maximum five-star rating, and we’ve no reason to think the GTE would perform any differently.

In the passenger compartment, the GTE is just as roomy and as practical as any other Golf. That means good space up front, and plenty of headroom and legroom in the rear for a pair of tall adults to get comfy.

A wide middle seat means a third rear passenger won’t be too uncomfortable, either, although, they will have to straddle a bulky transmission tunnel, but that’s the case in the vast majority of cars. Fitting a pair of bulky child seats will also be easy.

Things are slightly different in the boot, because that space is a good bit smaller than you get in the regular Golf. That’s because the fuel tank has been moved to sit directly under the boot floor, so the floor has to be higher.

You’ll still fit a fair few bags in, but you might want to look elsewhere if you regularly need to carry a pushchair. When you fold down the rear seats, they don’t go as flat as they do in a regular Golf, either, because the batteries - placed underneath the rear pews - get in the way.

The dashboard and door trims are lined with soft-touch plastics for a classy feel, and although there are some harder ones to be found lower down in the cabin, these are still smart to look at and nicely textured.

You’ll also notice a fair amount of chrome detailing and glossy panelling designed to jazz things up even further, and it’s largely successful.

If you’re familiar with the GTI, you’ll notice some similar styling cues, such as the stitching on the steering wheel, but where the motifs are red in the GTI, they’re blue in the GTE. This makes the car feel sporty, but gives it its own sense of identity.

Despite the GTE being a fairly lofty offering in the Golf range, early examples don’t do quite as well here as you might expect. Standard cars get a 6.5-inch touchscreen, with DAB radio, Bluetooth, a single CD player, eight speakers, a USB port and SMS (read and compose) functionality.

However, Apple Carplay/Android Auto weren’t included, and neither was sat-nav, and you had to pay a lot extra to add it. This also brought a bigger 8.0-inch touchscreen and a 64GB hard drive. Later GTE Advance versions got this system as standard, but again, the base car made do with a more basic system, albeit with the bigger screen and smartphone integration.

Volkswagen produces some of the better touchscreens on the market. The graphics are clear, the menus are logical, response times are quick and the screen sensitivity is good.

However, a touchscreen - even a good one - is still more distracting to use on the move than a rotary dial-operated alternative, due to the amount of concentration you have to put into hitting just the right bit of the screen. At least the Golf has separate air-con controls, so you can change the cabin temperature without having to resort to swiping and tapping.

The precise on-the-road price of the GTE flitted about a fair amount over the years, not least because of regular changes to the size of the Government’s plug-in car grant (PiCG) for which the GTE applied.

Whatever the case, buyers would be looking at forking out around £31,000, and when the higher spec GTE Advance version was introduced, it cost around £2,000 more than the standard model. The GTE isn’t a cheap car by any means, then, but it is a little more affordable than the Audi e-tron with which it shares most of its mechanicals.

A Hyundai Ioniq PHEV will cost you significantly less, but do remember that the Volkswagen will onto onto its value better than the Hyundai (although not quite as well as the Audi), so you’ll get a bigger slice of your investment back when the time comes to trade your car in.

Strong resale values will also mean slightly lower monthly payments for finance customers, although bear in mind that that finance will have to be arranged through your dealer. At the time of writing, Volkswagen had stopped selling the GTE as a brand new car, and as such was not offering finance deals.

The 160mpg figure is the old-school NEDC figure that has since been replaced by a new testing standard (known as WLTP) to better reflect real-world driving conditions.

Secondly, both these testing regimes use laboratory tests that alway result in massively inflated figures for plug-in hybrids due to how these cars work. So, most drivers won’t have a prayer of matching this figure in the real world.

Everything will depend on how you use your car. Put simply, if you only ever run the car on electricity, you’ll use no petrol, and if you regularly call upon the petrol engine for help, you’ll use lots, more than a regular combustion-engined car due to the extra weight of the batteries. For best effect, stick to electric-only power as often as you can.

According to NEDC  figures, the GTE can go up to 31 miles on battery power before the petrol engine will be called upon to help out, but we reckon you’ll be doing well if you manage 20 miles before petrol power is called upon.

Even then, though, it'll be enough to deal with many people’s daily commute. The car comes as standard with two cables, one compatible with a three-pin domestic socket - which will charge the battery in just under four hours - and one compatible with a 7kW wallbox charger, that’ll do the job in a little over two.

Volkswagen ranked in the top half of the 2019 JD Power Vehicle Dependability, suggesting respectable - if not spectacular - reliability.

To begin with, the GTE was offered in one highly-specified trim, but later on, an even higher spec version was also offered that was called either GTE Advance.

The basic GTE trim comes with lots of the good stuff as standard, including alloy wheels, two-zone climate control, a leather steering wheel, sports seats, bespoke cloth upholstery, ambient lighting, four powered windows, remote locking, front- and rear parking sensors and automatic lights and wipers.

That’s on top of the safety and infotainment kit we mentioned earlier, and as we said, if you wanted to add navigation, this cost extra. The GTE Advance got the upgraded infotainment system as standard, along with heated seats.