Volkswagen had originally wanted to ship the range-topping Golf R hatchback with the renowned 2.5-liter, 5-cylinder Audi engine, but the Ingolstadt automotive company did not see the economic sense in this.
Apparently, Audi has no problem with selling its excellent engine model to other manufacturers, Donkervoort and KTM being some of the more recent examples. However, with the 2.5-liter Audi TFSI under the hood, the Golf R would certainly cannibalize the sales of the similarly equipped, yet much more expensive Audi RS 3. This simply could not happen.
This is why the new Volkswagen Golf R Mk8 will ship with a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder mill rated at 333 hp (248 kW). An even higher spec is rumored to be underway with the same engine bolstered to 400 hp (298 kW) at the crank, but this remains unconfirmed.
Another reason why Audi turned down the proposal from VW was the limited production capacity. Mass-producing the TFSI mill would have necessitated building new production lines and generally spending tons of money to upgrade the facilities that would end up staying idle after the production is complete.
The Volkswagen Golf R should debut in the summer.