What appears to be a new VW Passat and modified Golf R are currently trekking South African roads in prototype form.
We were recently travelling back to Gauteng after a trip out of the province and in the Muldersdrift area on the outskirts of Joburg – a known hotspot for VW test vehicles – we spotted two Passat estates and a souped-up Golf R hatch being put through their paces presumably by VW engineers.
The sighting was of particular interest. The Passat hasn’t been on sale in South Africa for quite a number of years, and this particular Golf was unlike any other we’ve seen before.
We promptly reached out to VW Group Africa (VWGA) in an attempt to discover the purpose of these vehicles, but unfortunately did not get a response.
This doesn’t stop us from speculating, however.
2 Passats, 1 Golf
The Passat, in its eighth generation at the time, was last on sale in South Africa in 2019 but never as an estate, only a sedan.
The facelifted version of that eighth-gen Passat was launched in 2020 in overseas markets, with the ninth generation revealed in late 2023 to reach the European market in early 2024.
It is this latest version of the Passat that we saw on South African roads, in fact, it was two of them.
Given that these vehicles had no camouflage on them, we reckon VW may be testing something new under the skin, perhaps a type of hybrid or fully electric setup.
It may very well also be tuning the car’s internals for hotter, drier weathers should it be planning to release it in markets outside Europe such as in Africa or the Middle East.
This is a type of testing that is carried out in South Africa rather frequently by many different manufacturers.
You might be wondering, does this sighting mean VW is bringing the Passat back to South Africa? It’s not impossible, but we don’t think so.
Head of VWGA, Martina Biene, recently revealed that the local arm of VW took over certain engineering “responsibilities” from VW HQ in Germany as the latter struggles to reign in expenses.
“In our case, there’s quite a positive development currently from the German Volkswagen disaster,” said Biene at the annual #NADAConnect conference in March.
“We’ll take over responsibilities in engineering now from Germany because they see the potential in this country, there are skilled people, and labour in South Africa is cheaper than it probably is in a very high-income country like Germany, so we take over engineering capabilities.”
This suggests that VWGA now has the important task of testing and refining cars for other markets, not just ours, and the Passat could be one of those. It also means that we should be seeing even more VW prototypes on domestic roads going forward.
Supporting this idea is the fact that VW cited slow sales for the discontinuation of the Passat sedan over half a decade ago.
The examples on test were estates, also known as station wagons, which are even less popular than sedans in South Africa.
The Passat is also one of the more premium offerings in the VW stable, whereas local consumers have displayed buying-down trends in recent times.
It’s thus improbable that we’ll see this VW in South African showrooms again any time soon, but we have been proven wrong before.
The more interesting sighting, depending on who you ask, was what appeared to be the new, rally-inspired Golf R that VW has secretly been working on.
The Golf test car was strategically positioned between the two Passats to minimise the chances of the public getting a peek at it.
Whether this was done on purpose or by accident, it was certainly effective, as it meant we couldn’t get any clear photos of the Golf through the traffic save for a shot of its front-left edge where you can just make out the black wheel-arch cladding.
This R – or what appears to be an identical version – was recently seen ripping around the famed Nürburgring in Germany sporting extended black wheel arches and a lifted ride height.
As VW has done rally-fied variations of the Golf in the past – see: Golf Rallye and Golf Country – it’s not impossible that it’s doing so again to get tongues wagging and to inject a bit of cool factor back into the brand.
The critical question stands once more, will VW be bringing the lifted Golf R to South Africa? Again, not impossible, but not very likely.
VWGA may just be ironing out the final creases before the hot hatch is officially released into the world, as this particular Golf R appears to be of the facelifted 8.5 generation that was unveiled in late 2024.
VW recently confirmed to The Citizen that this iteration of the high-performance Golf will not be offered in South Africa as the powertrain contains an unremovable particle filter that is incompatible with local fuels – an issue numerous automakers have sounded the alarm on.
Hence, only the tamer Golf 8.5 TSI will be available in the country until such time that our fuel standards improve – or VW finds a workaround to the filter issue – which is only expected to happen in 2027 at the very earliest.
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