Review: Volkswagen Passat GTE

With this plug-in hybrid, there are some important numbers that VW will have looked at in the UK market. They are 3,500 and 75,000. The first is the number of hybrids just three years ago, the second is the current number.

That’s an absolutely enormous increase of, errr, many. So the Passat GTE is launching into a growing market and so it needs to be absolutely right on the money. A phrase we’ll come back to later.

The name tells you how this is viewed, a grand tourer with electric capability. The range is a claimed 622 miles, so if you need to eat a continent before breakfast this makes a whole heap of sense, particularly when you view the claimed consumption figures of 166mpg.

That figure, combined with CO2 emissions of just 39g/km, is thanks to what sounds like a fairly small engine for such a big car. The 1.4-litre four-cylinder under the bonnet is good for 154bhp which isn’t enough. But add in the substantial electric motor and you have 215bhp. That’s more like it, particularly when you factor in the all-electric component’s ability to get the car away from standstill like a cat that’s just sat on a whole lot of volts.

Despite all the clever stuff, you aren’t really aware of when the engine comes in and out, there’s just a pleasant shove at any revs or speed. But move it to GTE mode and everything, from suspension to throttle and gearbox, sharpens up and lets you hoon down country lanes in a far from decorous manner. Handling is impressive and you’re moving at the sort of pace you wouldn’t expect to in what is set up as a mile-muncher.

Inside it’s what you’d expect, in that it’s a great and spacious cabin, albeit with reminders like blue stitching and lights, that you’re driving the E-version. There’s also an instrument that shows your power range, so that’s handy when you’re trying to make the electricity last before the petrol engine cuts in.