Volkswagen and Rivian Are Working on a New Electric Golf

The e-Golf you see here had to die so that the bulbous ID.3 could live. However, Volkswagen is preparing a switcheroo. It plans to delete the combustion engine from its most popular car once again. When that happens, the ID.3 is likely to be axed, as Kai Grünitz, the head of technical development, hinted at the beginning of the year. The automaker’s boss, Thomas Schäfer, has now revealed player two is about to enter the electric Golf game.

Rivian is lending VW a helping hand to develop the ninth-generation Golf. The new compact hatchback will be exclusively electric and ride on the forthcoming Scalable Systems Platform (SSP). A couple of weeks ago, VW and Rivian launched their joint venture worth $5.8 billion to engineer electric architecture and software for next-gen cars. We’re learning the Golf Mk9 will be among the early adopters.

Speaking with Automotive News, Schäfer confirmed VW needs Rivian’s assistance to work on a complete reinvention of its legendary car: “We decided on how to do the software-defined vehicle. It will happen with Rivian, the joint venture, where we put the new electric electronics architecture together. But we have also decided that we want to start this journey with a more iconic product. So we’ll start with the Golf.”

We certainly didn’t have a VW+Rivian Golf on our bingo card, but it shows how much the automotive industry is changing as legacy automakers need help from tech-savvy newcomers. The electric Mk9 isn’t coming anytime soon, though. The top brass from Wolfsburg said we’ll have to wait until 2029 to see the car, a “real volume product” with some big shoes to fill.

Since it won’t be launched in the next four years, VW still has plenty of time to improve the ID.3 we mentioned earlier. A fully redesigned version with better hardware and a higher-quality interior featuring more physical buttons is coming in 2026. Logic tells us there will be an overlap between the ID.3 and the electric Golf since VW is unlikely to drop the former after only three years.

When the electric Golf arrives in 2029, it won’t spell the end for the conventionally powered model. The Mk8 launched in late 2019 with gasoline, diesel, and plug-in hybrid powertrains could stick around until 2035. That’s when the European Union promised to ban sales of new cars that generate harmful emissions, effectively outlawing the combustion engine.

The e-Golf redux won’t be the first VW product to benefit from Rivian’s know-how. Schäfer said Audi and Porsche will lead the way, with cars arriving as early as 2027. When the joint venture was launched earlier this month, the two companies said their new electrical architecture and software technology would be compatible with “all relevant vehicle segments,” as small as subcompact cars.