Volkswagen Reinvents GTI Logo For The Electric Era

Volkswagen will be updating the GTI logo for the electric era, replacing the last letter with a lightning bolt.CarBuzzdiscovered the new logo in a trademark filed with theGerman Patent and Trade Mark Office, and it confirms insiders' belief that the nameplatewill live on in the electric era.

The GTI name is highly valuable to Volkswagen, and it appears that the meaning of the acronym will have to change with this logo update. Currently, it stands for "Grand Touring Injection," the last part obviously referring to fuel injection. With the last letter being replaced by a lightning bolt, it appears that the "GTI" name will simply be repurposed, meaning thatthe GTX monikercurrently applied to high-performance VW EVs may fall away.

Another possibility is that this new logo will indicate that the car is only partly electrified. Perhaps Volkswagen will continue to apply the GTX name to fully electric vehicles, reserving GTI for models that are only hybridized, but in the long term, the GTI name is too valuable to keep on niche products, and once VW's entire range is electric, we see no point in keeping the GTX name around.

As for the Golf itself, VW Passenger Cars CEO Thomas Schaefer expects the current eight-generation to stick around "until the end of the decade," after which Volkswagen "will have to see how the segment develops."