Originally produced between 1974 and 1992 on the A1 platform of the Golf Mk1, the Scirocco was revived in 2008 with A5 underpinnings from the Golf Mk5. Never sold in the US due to unfavorable USD-EUR exchange rates, the third-generation Scirocco left us with a whimper rather than a bang in the wake of the Dieselgate scandal that prompted VW to put a bigger emphasis on electric vehicles.
The whimper in question is best described as 10,752 deliveries in European markets back in 2016 as opposed to a high point of 45,248 sales in 2009. During those years, the Golf moved 491,681 and 579,246 units, respectively. It's been downhill since for the compact-sized hatchback, and the ID.3 isn't doing too hot either due to a plethora of reasons.
Be that as it may, automotive rendering artist Theophilus Chin decided to virtually revive Volkswagen's compact-sized coupe in the form of an electric vehicle with ID. visual influences. Rather than the ID.3, the pixel wizard known as Theottle on social media used styling cues from the recently unveiled ID. CODE electric vehicle concept. Revealed at the Auto China 24 trade fair in Beijing, the CODE is a coupe-ish crossover whose forward-looking design language will carry over to the China-exclusive ID.UX family of electric vehicles.
Allegedly, that is, because we already know how the first ID.UX electric vehicle looks. Enter the ID.UNYX, which is nothing more than a Volkswagen-branded take on the Cupra Tavascan. Due in late 2024, the compact utility vehicle is made by the Volkswagen Anhui joint venture, of which the Volkswagen Group owns a 75 percent stake.
Theottle's proposal for a modern-day Scirocco, however, would not make any sense whatsoever in 2024 and beyond. Regardless of the level of electrification, sport utility vehicle is the name of the game nowadays. To this effect, Ford now makes the Bronco in China for the Chinese market while the Mustang for China comes from Michigan.
Photo: Theottle on YouTube
Glancing over the delivery numbers for the Mustang and other two- and three-door vehicles will also help you understand that coupes and convertibles are on a downward slope. Thankfully, the Ford Mustang Mach-E sold worse than the Mustang in the Ford Motor Company's home market last year.
With the Dearborn-based automaker struggling to sell 50,000 units of the quintessential pony car in the United States on a yearly basis, why should the Volkswagen Group invest millions over millions of euros into an electric three-door coupe that will not sell in sufficiently large numbers? Volkswagen already has a hard time selling electric vehicles, with the Volkswagen Group reporting a slight decline in EV sales in the first quarter of 2024.
More specifically, -3 percent compared to an improvement of +4 percent for combustion vehicles. Despite the rather worrying development, Wolfsburg's favorite son does not have a choice but to keep developing new electric vehicles to get as close as possible to the European Union's 2025 fleet-wide CO2 emission target of 93.6 grams per kilometer for passenger cars (i.e., Golf) and 153.9 grams per kilometer for LCVs (i.e., Transporter).
You might have also heard about the 2035 ban on the sale of new fossil-fuel vehicles in the EU. Although certain European markets are completely against said ban while others expect synthetic fuels to save the day, there's no denying that electric vehicles will slowly but steadily chip away at the market share of their fossil-fuel counterparts. And in this rather gloomy future, there is – unfortunately – no place at all for a zero-emission Scirocco.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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