Volkswagen’s hot ID range to get GTX label

Hot Volkswagens with gas engines earn the GTI moniker, hot diesels are called GTD, hot hybrids are known by GTE. Autocar reports that, according to “high-ranking sources” inside VW, the battery-electric ID range will use the GTX label. VW applied to trademark the initials in Europe last December, doing so in the U.S. this March; just this month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office placed the application on hold “pending other action.”  The magazine believes the first VW product to get the GTX name will be the ID.5.

The “X” is said to stand for four-wheel drive, meaning the hotted-up EVs will be two-motor affairs. The ID.3 debuted with a single, rear-mounted electric motor producing 201 horsepower and 229 pound-feet of torque. The ID Space Vizzion concept in single-motor guise put out 275 hp and 405 lb-ft; with another motor placed at the front axle that spun 101 hp and 111 lb-ft, and combined system output was rated at 335 hp and 486 lb-ft. The wagon’s sprint to 60 miles per hour was put at 5 seconds even.

The Autocar piece mentions a production version of the Crozz Coupe concept getting the ID.5 GTX name, even though that concept has already been spied as the ID.4, and the ID Vizzion and ID Space Vizzion concepts have previously been tabbed as likely to get the ID.5 identifier. The ID.4 is due next year, which would make a potential 2021 GTX arrival reasonable to expect, while VW has said the ID.5 won’t debut until perhaps 2022. 

Whatever the final product turns out to be — crossover, sedan or wagon — and whenever it comes, Autocar writes that engineers at the automaker’s Braunschweig R&D center are already testing the performance variant. As one would expect, interior and exterior trim will separate the GTX from its siblings. Furthermore, Volkswagen might leave room above that trim for an even hotter battery-electric R model.