Volkswagen Golf 8, hybrid and connected – Mondo Auto

(Press review) The eighth generation of the Volkswagen bestseller arrives: Golf 8, which renews itself both from the point of view of technology and of engines, maintaining that family feeling at the base of its success.

New Volkswagen Golf 8 unveiled

(…) In 1974 the Volkswagen Golf was presented, the model that was to replace the Beetle and that had been designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro. Forty-five years later Nixon died (1994), the Red Brigades and terrorism were defeated, Golf is still here. And the eighth generation has arrived (sales in Italy will start in the first quarter of 2020). The Golf – let's say so – 8.0 showed it (static) in Germany, in Wolfsburg, headquarters of the Vw, magnifying the electronics. A customizable screen for more than ten inches replaces the dashboard, another large screen in the middle of the dashboard serves to control and display the air conditioning, navigation, infotainment (from radio to e-mail) and much more and almost everything it is also commanded by voice or by gestures, so everything is easier. The driving aids, controlled by radars and sensors distributed over the entire bodywork, remain in operation up to 210 km / h and, in turns to the left, they check that no one arrives. Otherwise they stop the car. On the tunnel, for the Golfs with the double-clutch automatic (there is also a manual), the gear lever has disappeared: now there is a stump that is hardly noticeable. And then the five-door German two-volume, which has kept the large rear pillar (the «griffe» of the Golf), has standard LED lights, including the intelligent ones that do not dazzle those who come. But the new Golf is also a talker: with the Car2x system the car comes into contact with the other machines and ground control systems (they are not there yet, but they will come) and it exchanges information on traffic and on the roads, to increase the safety and avoid traffic jams. And then it's in contact with a dedicated cloud: you can memorize many functions, including the preferred position of the driver's seat, so when you change cars, you download the info from the cloud and you don't waste time moving the seat . Taking advantage of the constant connection with the network there is also the system called We connect, which is proposed on two levels and ensures the emergency call to the command: "Heat the car". Furthermore, given that pay per use is becoming more widespread, there is also the We connect dedicated to company cars that provides vehicle reporting automatically (goodbye to management software). Still on this false line, the new Golf takes advantage of the constant connection and no longer has the key: to enter and start using the smartphone (Samsung for the moment), and we hope that the device will not download, otherwise … Front c is always the engine. There are conventional, petrol and methane (all turbos), with three or four cylinders, from one to two liters, with power ranging from 90 to over 300 horses. There are four-liter four-cylinder turbodiesels with double injection of urea to neutralize NOX. There are 48 Volt electrified Golfs (mild hybrid) with starter / generator, which gives more sparkle and less consumption (read less CO2 emissions). (…)
Gianni Antoniella, Il Corriere della Sera

Eighth change of clothes for the Volkswagen Golf, queen of Europe from time immemorial. So much so that not even the decisive turn of the market in favor of SUVs has affected its dominance: over 310 thousand registrations in the first nine months of the year, a chimeric figure for any other model.
Unthinkable therefore that for the new generation Wolfsburg risked a radical change. Thus, overall dimensions and habitability remain substantially unchanged, while the image preserves the iconic stylistic trait that distinguishes it from the first generation, the result of Giorgio Giugiaro's pencil: the shaped upright in the shape of an arrow pointing towards the tail. To differentiate as required, the appearance provides a slimmer front, cut by a full-width light bar.
But the new in the Golf 8 is above all in on-board services. In front of the driver dominates a fully digital cockpit: all the physical buttons disappeared, its management is entrusted to the now inevitable touch screen or voice commands. Modem and on-board SIM card ensure a perennial connection, including the ability to communicate with other Car2X-enabled cars as well as (when available) with road infrastructures capable of signaling obstacles and various dangers. To complete it all, the on-board presence of Alexa, the virtual assistant signed by Amazon, and the possibility of opening the doors and starting the car via your smartphone, if compatible.
On a technical level, leaving the newborn ID3 as a forerunner in the world of pure electrics, the Golf comes with a range of eight engines with power between 90 and 300 hp, among which five hybrid variants stand out: three with the a minimum help that goes under the name of mild hybrid, two with the plug-in solution, which promises 60 km of autonomy in purely electric mode. On the other hand, the elimination of the extremely popular 1600 testifies to the progressive detachment from the diesel: only two liters remain in the range in two versions, from 115 and 150 hp, both equipped with double injection of AdBlue in the exhaust to reduce (even of the 80%, says VW) the emissions of nitrogen oxides and thus definitively close the accounts (hopefully) with the known events of the recent past.
From the many times announced to simplify a range so far too prolific, both the sport variants, GTI and GTD, and those with four-wheel drive are saved. Instead the now obsolete three-door body and the minivan disappear: in practice, the Variant alone is destined to survive alongside the classic five-door compact. At the same time, the Golf 8 will no longer be assembled either in Mexico or in the German factory in Zwickau, which is currently being reconverted to electricity: from now on, the entire production is entrusted to the group's main plant, that of Wolfsburg, however capable if necessary, churn out just under half a million units a year. (…)
Massimo Nascimbene, La Repubblica