A new report out of Australia suggests the hot GTI and hotter R versions of the Volkswagen Golf 8 are due in 2020, soon after the launch of the broader range.

The news comes after Jürgen Stackmann, VW’s member of the board responsible for sales, marketing and after sales, told Automotive News Europe the launch of the standard eighth-generation Golf had been pushed back (the hatchback had initially been scheduled for an unveiling at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2019).

Now, speaking to Which Car, a VW Australia spokesperson said the broader Golf range – along with the GTI – would hit that country by the third quarter of 2020, with the R-badged model following before the end of that year.

“We’re still on track for early Q3 2020 at which time we’ll launch GTI together with the broader range with R to follow later in the year,” the spokesperson said.

One would expect the new Golf GTI and Golf R to hit certain European markets – including VW’s home turf of Germany – before Australia (and, indeed, South Africa), which we’d speculate suggests respective reveals of the two hot hatches fairly early in 2020.

In February 2019, a British report claimed Volkswagen had scrapped plans to switch the new Golf GTI to hybrid power, opting instead to subtly revise the hardware of the outgoing version of the popular front-wheel-drive hot hatch.

Autocar added the new GTI would gain “incremental performance” updates, thanks to various tweaks made to its EA888 engine. The powerplant was expected to be offered in two outputs, with the standard model featuring around 188 kW and the flagship TCR-badged version some 213 kW (yes, just like the recently revealed model of the same name). However, both versions are set to enjoy increased torque outputs.

Original article from Car