Coming next year: Facelift 152 kW Volkswagen Polo GTI revealed

Torque output remains at 320 Nm with the seven-speed DSG also carried over.

Facelift means the Polo GTI now resembles the Golf 8 GTI to an extent.

After a comparatively short teaser campaign, Volkswagen has taken the wraps off of the facelift Polo GTI that will be coming to South Africa in the first quarter of next year.

Following in the wheel tracks of the ‘standard’ Polo launched in April, the GTI builds on the applied tweaks, but additionally boasts a look similar to the incoming Golf 8 GTI when viewed from the front.

Available with the new sport chassis that results in a 15 mm ride height drop over the normal Polo, the GTI receives a model specific front bumper, new headlights with standard Matrix LEDs, a restyled grille complete with a honeycomb pattern and backlight lower LED bar, a reshaped lower air intake and at the rear, new LED taillights, a revised diffuser and a GTI badge in place of the Polo insignia underneath the VW logo on the bootlid.

Golf touches continue at the rear.

Mounted on 17-inch alloy wheels with the option of upgrading to 18-inch wheels, the European-spec Polo GTI will go on sale with a choice of five colours; Pure White Uni, Deep Black Pearl, Smoke Grey Metallic, Kings Red Metallic and Reef Blue Metallic.

Inside, the Polo GTI builds on the revisions applied to its sibling by further receiving a GTI leather wrapped steering wheel with red stitching, gloss black inserts, optional red detailing on the dashboard and down the centre console, sport seats with red stitching, red stitch work on the gear lever and from the options list, a six-speaker, 300-watt Beats sound system.

As standard, the GTI retains the eight-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which can be optionally swapped for the bigger 9.2-inch display with embedded satellite navigation. The 10.25-inch Digital Cockpit Pro instrument cluster is however standard.

Despite specification being carried over, the Polo GTI now gets the semi-autonomous Travel Assist system that allows for partial hands-free driving where permitted at speeds up to 210 km/h.

Refresh has been carried over to the interior.

Underneath the bonnet, the 2.0 TSI engine has been retained, but with the same 152 kW as the pre-facelift model that returned to Germany two months ago after sales were temporarily suspended due to non-compliance with the more stringent Euro6 emissions regulations.

In spite of the five kilowatt gain, the engine’s 320 Nm remains with drive once again going to the front wheels via the seven-speed DSG now that the six-speed manual has fallen away even in Europe. Top speed has however gone up from 237 km/h to 240 km/h with the 0-100 km/h sprint trimmed by two tenths of a second to 6.5 seconds.

As indicated, pricing for the Polo GTI will only be announced next year with production set to once again take place on local shores at Volkswagen’s Uitenhage plant in the Eastern Cape.