For the past decade, Volkswagen has used the massive Worthersee VW gathering in Austria to reveal a concept car conceived, designed and built by apprentices at the company's headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany.
This year, the result of that effort is the Golf GTI First Decade, a car that celebrates that 10-year milestone, and is also the first GTI packing a hybrid powertrain.
Up front is a 404 hp gas engine and out back is an electric motor fed by a 12 kWh battery pack, charged via regenerative braking. Among the car's more interesting features is its ability to run on either power source independently, or both together, making this among the first – if not the first – car in which the driver decides whether the car goes as a front-driver, a rear-driver or in AWD.
Also on display at Worthersee is a Golf GTE Variant (station wagon) built by apprentices down the road at VW's Zwickau plant. It's a hybrid with a 16.8 kWh battery pack and a cheesy, tech-y paint job.
