With over 30 million Passats manufactured over the span of seven distinct generations, the eighth iteration of the nameplate in plug-in hybrid Variant GTE guise was unveiled in 2019 alongside other versions of the mid-sized model.

At the 2014 Paris Motor Show, Volkswagen showed its cleanest Passat version, the GTE. The new plug-in hybrid had the advantages of low running costs based on a trusted platform.