Even though the official presentation (and subsequent sales start) will take place at the upcoming Frankfurt Auto Show, the German automaker couldn’t wait. Volkswagen’s 2013 Annual Press and Investors Conference gave a peek at what is expected to be its first fully electric vehicle. There are also plans for an e-Golf, but each one’s particular characteristics make them have very different purposes. While VW’s European dealers still can’t offer your own, how about reading more about the latest petrol-free hatchback?
The final part of this article will reveal what every car fan of nowadays already knows about electric powertrain for a city car. What distinguishes up! from the crowd, though, is the fact of being one of the first low-cost electric vehicles. It’ll certainly cost more than the petrol versions, but since this is an electric engine placed on a low-cost car, e-up! is expected to compete with superminis such as Chevrolet Spark EV and Fiat 500e, if the latter was sold in Europe too. These cars aren’t concerned with high performance, luxury or even with record-breaking mileage, but with offering a reliable and affordable car which could suit young customers as their first car or wealthier families as a cheaper option for conmute. That’s why cars like e-up! represent a very interesting point at this propulsion’s history. They’re finally leaving the status of very expensive products to become much closer to the public’s reality. The following step will be taking care of these vehicles after the sales, creating an increasing number of recharge stations and trying to keep the maintenance process as close to petrol cars’ as it’s possible. After all, the intention is to make the electric cars just as dependable as the gas and diesel ones, trying to achieve massive sales in order to reduce their additional costs.
After revealing that up! will receive a hybrid version with some of the technologies used on XL1, Volkswagen gives a very discreet design to the electric sibling, using aerodynamic bumpers with front LED daytime lights and polished 15” alloy wheels. The interior received an exclusive coating scheme focusing on light colors, but the interesting part really is the powertrain. Volkswagen e-up! has an electric engine with peak power of 81 hp and 155 lb-ft of torque, this one with the usual full availability since the first revolution and almost no powertrain noise. The lithium-ion battery is hidden under the floor and stores up to 18.7 kWh, which can be recharged by the fuel door up to 80% with a special charger that uses the Combined Charging System (CCS) and supports both DC and AC outputs, not to mention it’s able to use most of the charging stations available in Europe. Such equipment enables a range of 93 miles and the performance of 14 seconds for 0-to-60 mph acceleration and 84 mph of top speed, despite of weighing 2612.5 pounds. There will be more information by the time of the upcoming German event.
