VW Golf GTE Sport is a 395bhp carbon-bodied plug-in hybrid Golf

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Volkswagen has revealed a quite bonkers plug-in hybrid at the Worthersee Show – the VW Golf GTE Sport – featuring a 395bhp powertrain and carbon body.

Every year, all shades of tuned VWs head for the south bank of Lake Worthersee to strut their stuff, admirably supported by often mad concepts from Volkswagen. And 2015 is no different.

This year, VW has revealed the Golf GTE Sport Concept at Worthersee, which is probably best described as the dark side of the regular hybrid Golf GTE – a Mr Hyde to the regular GTE’s safe and sensible Dr Jekyll – which turns the idea of the GTE’s frugality on its head and turns it in to a visually striking and impressively performing plug-in hybrid.

Powering the GTE Sport is a 1.6 litre TSI turbo petrol with 295bhp all on its own, but VW has mated that to a pair of 113bhp electric motors for a total usable output of 395bhp (coincidentally, the same as the last fast Gold concept – the Golf R 400) which, say VW, is enough to get to 62mph in 4.3 seconds and on to 174mph.

Thanks to the daft way official economy is calculated, the GTE gets an official rating of 141mpg thanks to its plug-in ability to run up to 31 miles on electro power only, but if VW were ever to put this powetrain out in the wild you’d be lucky to get within 100mpg of that figure.

Volkswagen hasn’t just given the GTE an impressive powertrain, they’ve also gone a bit OTT with the carbon fibre bodywork which features gullwing doors and a two-level design for the C pillars, huge wheelarches, butch front and back ends and a much more aggressive stance.

It’s all very appealing – if a bit over the top – and although the Golf GTE Sport almost certainly doesn’t preview a future VW model, it no doubt points towards future Golf styling and Golf powertrains.

Both of which look appealing.