“I’m most proud of getting rid of plastic parts, of getting so close to production and not seeing cheap plastic parts anymore. I learned this at Bentley, when you sit in it and feel wonderful because of the materials.
“Anything that looks like leather is leather, metal is metal, wood is wood: authentic materials make you feel good.”
We’ve seen GTI in the EV era with the recent concept, but what about the R?
“R is four-wheel drive, taken from history. It requires certain technical elements. In certain segments this is not possible because all-wheel drive and the best possible engine are required. GTI are smaller cars. GTI and R are different things to different customers.
“We had GTX, but there’s a spirit in GTI that people get excited about. GTIs are jeans and sneakers, useful yet smart, not a boy racer. R is a suit. I see the Mk6 and Mk7 GTIs in white with the red stickers and I love them.”
Is there room for more specialist models in the Volkswagen range?
“Of course. But we have to do our homework and cover all the important segments and make them really good. That’s our main goal now. But I have a lot of skunkworks.
“We often do this and turn the result into a boring limousine, because you have to develop an idea. Sometimes we spend the whole week designing Lamborghinis together, but then we turn it into a VW and see the result.