Electric Volkswagen e-Up revealed in production guise

Volkswagen has revealed the production version of the VW e-Up, an Up! with an 81bhp electric motor. Debuts at the Frankfurt Motor Show 2013.

It’s three years almost since we first saw the VW e-Up, an electric version of VWs city car, and now it’s almost ready to launch.

VW has taken the Up’s three cylinder petrol engine out and replaced it with an electric motor good for 81bhp (54bhp continuous power), enough to get to 62mph in 14 seconds and on to 84mph (not that you’d want to).

There’s 18.7kWh of lithium batteries lurking under the floor which, say VW, is enough to get the e-Up for 90 miles on a charge, and the e-Up can be recharged up to 80 per cent of capacity in just 30 minutes.

To make the e-Up stand out from the regular Up range it gets a few tweaks like curved LED running lights in the front bumper (no, there aren’t any KITT flowing LEDs) and the bodywork and underbody have been aerodynamically optimised. There’s also a set of machine-polished 15″ alloys and VW logo with blue background (blue is the German green) at the back.

Inside, VW has given the e-Up light grey seat covers with blue stitching (that German green again) and there’s leather and chrome highlights for what VW call “…a puristic impression that matches the vehicle concept of a full-fledged urban electric car“.

VW hasn’t come up with a price for the e-Up yet, but it will probably be the wrong side of £20k – more than twice the price of a standard Up – but if you can afford to buy the e-Up, and use it only in a confined urban environment, then it is the perfect urban runaround.

The VW e-Up will get its public debut at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show in September.