PoloDriver

Following on from the reveal of the refreshed sixth-generation Polo on 21 April 2021, Volkswagen has fired the starting gun on the arrival of the 2022 Polo GTI by releasing a design sketch of the updated model. The new performance Polo has been billed as ‘sharper, dynamic, and power-packed’.

The 2022 Polo GTI will be revealed in an official online world premiere event at the end of June 2021, and the teaser announcement coincides with the time of the Wörthersee GTI meet, which has been staged at Lake Wörthersee in the Austrian town of Reifnitz/Maria Wörth since the 1980s. The four-day event has again been cancelled in 2021 due to the ongoing pandemic.

‘Once a GTI, always a GTI’
‘Once a GTI, always a GTI’ is how Volkswagen describes the loyalty shown by fans of its now legendary badge, and once again, the new Polo GTI will be the sportiest and most ‘premium’ model in the range. It should also play to the traditional GTI strengths of everyday usability with heightened driving dynamics.

We already know that the 2022 Polo GTI will have a small bump in power to 204bhp, up from the 197bhp of the outgoing car which has been off sale – at least in the UK – for some months now. The new car is expected to use the old car’s EA888 ‘3B’ 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine which is essentially a detuned Golf GTI unit. However, the sporty Polo is once again available to order on Volkswagen’s UK website, but is listed as having 204bhp already, hinting that the revised engine is available now.

After disappearing from the UK price list in autumn 2020, it appears the Polo #GTI is back, back, BACK! But… with a 207PS/204bhp power bump, which is 7bhp more than when it disappeared. The new, yet to be unveiled, 2022 Polo GTI also has 207PS: is this the same engine? #VW pic.twitter.com/bvfxJnpwdb

— PoloDriver (@polodrivercom) May 4, 2021

In prime position
From Volkswagen’s official design sketch, the 2022 Polo GTI looks set to continue the new ‘GTI’ look set by the eighth-generation Golf GTI. Red radiator grille trim once again extends into the headlights – possibly using VW’s IQ Light LED matrix technology as that is already standard on the new Polo R-Line – and the new thinner font ‘GTI’ badge sits in prime position on the grille itself.

The refreshed Polo is already a sharper looker, so the updated GTI will immediately wear a more distinctive suit of clothes, but in VW’s official sketch, there appears to be a deeper front spoiler, a black roof, and similar alloy wheels to the new Golf GTI’s ‘Richmond’ rims, which seem to divide fan opinion… As the R-Line already has a gloss black rear spoiler and ‘diffuser’, the GTI will most likely have sportier versions of both.

Digitised interior
Inside, we expect the new Polo GTI to share the updated standard Polo’s more digitised interior, with a 10.25-inch Digital Cockpit Pro instrument display, as well as an 8.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system. New haptic touch air conditioning controls also feature in the updated Polo, but one thing the GTI will have over other Polos, is the traditional GTI tartan-panelled seats, most probably the same ‘Jacara Red’ cloth seen on the Golf 8 GTI.

What we don’t know is what gearbox the 2022 Polo GTI will come with as standard. In the UK, the only option on the outgoing Polo GTI was a six-speed DSG automatic – a mooted six-speed manual-equipped car sadly never arrived – but the transmission listed for the 204bhp model in the current brochure details a seven-speed DSG. The plot thickens…

All will be revealed towards the end of next month, and we’ll bring you all the details when they emerge. For now, though, how about taking a look back at where the Polo GTI story began – find more details about the first-ever, limited-run 1998 Polo GTI here, and the first non-limited model here – and we’ll see you at the end of June!