VW E-Up! - the new Beetle

The VW E-Up! Concept Electric City Car

Volkswagen has revealed the VW E-Up! Concept – an electric city car with a range of 80 miles.

E-Up! It’s a Volkswagen. As they say in Lancashire.

Volkswagen has taken the wraps off a car they believe will be the Beetle for the 21st century – the Volkswagen E-Up! Concept, a new, small VW City car which – you’ve guessed – is electrically powered, and based on the original VW Up! Concept.

The E-Up! is just 10′ 6″ long (3.19 metres) and weighs in at just over a tonne (1.09 tonnes) – of which 25% is taken up by the weight of the 18kwh lithium-ion battery pack – but will seat four people in a 3+1 layout. As with most city cars the range is pretty small – around 80 miles – but that’s at least twice what most city drivers do in a day. Volkswagen say that the E-Up! can be recharged to 80% of capacity in less than an hour.

Top speed of the E-Up! is 85 mph (not that you’d want to do that) from the 60kW motor, and 0-60 mph is 11 seconds. But, as with all electric cars, the torque is available straight out of the gate, so the 0-30mph – which matters far more in a city environment – is a not unreasonable 3.5 seconds.

Although VW are proclaiming the E-Ep! as the ‘Beetle for the 21st Century’ , they mean that in the sense that it will be the perfect car for it’s time – an electric car for the people. It’s not an attempt to draw retro-inspiration in its design – it is far more connected to the current design ethos of VW than the past – it’s about creating a car that works for its time in the way the Beetle did.

The E-Up! has some nice touches, like a solar powered to power the aircon and ancillaries without putting a drain on the battery. VW has lots to say, so take a look at the Volkswagen E-Up! Press Release.

The E-Up! should start to hit the roads in 2013.