As the world moves towards electric power, Volkswagen has no interest in dropping its focus on performance.

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It's not even been a week since Volkswagen revealed the ID.3 hatchback but the company is already preparing a hotter version, according to a new report from the UK. The new ID.3 is Volkswagen's first mass-produced electric vehicle, with a Golf-sized body and up to 550km of range. The company hasn't revealed a fast version just yet but Jurgen Stackmann, Volkswagen sales boss, has told Autocar the brand is already working out where it's planning to take the 'R' badge. "If there is a future for R it must be electric, it’s very simple," he told the British magazine. "It won’t be next year, because we need to define what R is in the electric world."

According to Volkswagen R&D boss Frank Welsch, an ID.3 R would be all-wheel drive with two performance motors, designed to significantly differentiate the R from the already-peppy regular model. "We should have the same as cars such as the Golf, the GTI and R. People like performance and I’m sure people will love performance in ID cars too," he explained. "The situation is different - even in the normal ID, we have good performance right from the very beginning, you just touch the pedal and you feel the punch. From 0-60km is like the GTI. No GTI is faster than the ID 3. At the upper end, of course GTI is better." One of the biggest issues Volkswagen needs to address before it is willing to slap the R badge on the back of an electric vehicle is weight. With a bigger battery comes more range, but there's also the issue of how it impact handling. Striking the right balance is critical, and VW clearly doesn't think it's capable of doing so at the moment.

It could be a while before the dual-motor ID.3 lobs, too, with Welsch suggesting we might be waiting five years. MORE: Volkswagen news, reviews, comparisons and videos