Auto Express has new details and a rendering "produced using exclusive insider information" of VW's new city car, the up! Shown in concept form at the 2007 Frankfurt IAS, the up! is a rear-engined city car, powered by a 600cc turbocharged two-pot engine in both diesel and gas form. Eco-friendly is the name of the game for the up!, which is targeting 100g of C02 per km driven and an eye-popping 94mpg. The rear-engine design is not in aid of tail-happy hoon potential, but rather improving crumple zones. A five-door MPV version is also planned, although it will likely have the same height and wheelbase as the tiny three-door. The up! will go on sale first in emerging markets like China and India, where stripped-out versions will retail for about $8k. More luxurious versions will head to Europe later, including rebadged SEAT and Skoda models that will run consumers nearly $15k. With the success of Fiat's 500, BMW's MINI, Daimler's SMART and (presumably) Toyota's iQ, the subcompact city car market is finally approaching maturity. [Ed: We resisted saying the only way is up! Because it isn't. Obviously.]
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This is going to be VERY interesting.
I doubt VW will be able to engineer the car to meet the specifications (i.e 100g per km and 94mpg) without a diesel engine. If they do use a diesel engine it will almost certainly price itself out of the bracket it will fight in.
A Toyota Aygo costs £6945 (though if you use a third party broker you can get it down to about £6K) and emits 109gm/km and does 68.9mpg. That’s all with a petrol engine.
If VW are going to do a similar car, with a diesel powertrain to emit 100gm/km and do 94mpg and be made by VW and bear a decent profit, then it can’t possibly sell for any less that £9000. At that price you could buy a Hyundai Getz CDX.
Incidentally, Citroen do the C1 (which is a reskinned, badge engineered Toyota Aygo), with a diesel powertrain, which does 109gm/km and 83.1mpg for £9025.
So, good luck VW…..!
Oh Lordy! The up!? What’s up with that? Har har har.
I think VW’s trying too hard to be cool and artsy fartsy with that name. But who knows? If they are targeting 20 something single females and metro-sexual guys in urban areas, it might just sell. I could see this working in Phoenix and Denver. Not in Farmington, NM, an oil field town where the official vehicles are Silverados and F-250s.
If they pull it off, they will make billions, and billions, and billions.
The smaller the car, the weirder the name?
First, I prefer names to letters and numbers. Bonneville instead of G8, for instance. Parisianne! Delmont! GranTursimo! Where have you gone?
Second, I will buy one of these in a second. I would rather bave an Abarth Fiat 50, but they will probably never make it here. I LOVE little cars, so fun!
Third, i agree with Landcrusher: If they pull it off, they will make billions, and billions, and billions
Is “up!” a sanksrit word for wind, an African tribe, or a soon-to-be-released Bryan Adams crapfest? ‘Cuz those are the sorts of things VeeDub likes for vehicle names.
[I write this as the former owner of a Golf III w/factory applied “Genesis” tour stickers all over it.]
I’m in. Sign me up!
Even if the mileage isn’t as good as they’re hoping I still like the looks and would be very interested.
Looks to me like VW just reinvented the original Beetle without the beetle shape and with better mileage. My first car was a ’62 VW Beetle. If it ever made it to the USA, it would sell like hotcakes.
At least you can pronounce up!
Half the world is still trying to get the peanut butter out of their mouth, attempting to pronounce Touareg (or even spell it for that matter).
@Katie Puckrick
I believe they are aiming for the Aygo’s price point. The Citroen C1 has a four-cylinder diesel, the VW will have 3 or even two cylinders.
All the mpgs in your post are Imperial – could you convert them to US mpg?
@Edward
I don’t think it will enter the market called the “up!”. That was the concept car’s name. They had the “IROC” concept car which turned into the Scirocco, so the up! will morph into the Lupo for production.
I don’t even want to think how they will name the concept car for the next generation Passat!
“My first car was a ‘62 VW Beetle. If it ever made it to the USA, it would sell like hotcakes.”
Actually, it did.
Thanks for the heads-up Mirko… that one threw me for a Lupo!
*groan*
Billions, and billions, and billions.
I would stand in line for it.
And, of course, US automakers won’t catch on . i can hear it now,
“You don’t need one of those confounded small city cars! It’s a quick-passing fad! You just need a smarter engine, available in our Yukon XXXXXL!”
solo84 :
The thing is, they’ll probably grudgingly admit that they lack such a vehicle and look to Korea, or maybe even China for something smaller and cheaper than the Aveo to throw at that segment regardless if its competitive or desirable in any way.
I’d buy one, as long as it’s affordable. Affordable to me would be about $15000 max for something like this. If it could manage close to 95 MPG and had decent crash ratings, VW would have people lined up further than the eye can see.
But, I doubt they’d offer this car in North America. I could see it being sold in Canada and selling very well, but I’d be surprised if it was sold in the US. VW seems to want to keep upsizing their vehicles in the US, which is as big of a mistake as GM not cluing in on selling decent small cars. VW has small, efficient cars available in other parts of the world that could currently compete with the Fit/Versa/Yaris, but we don’t get them here. I’d love to be able to go to my local dealer and buy a Polo or a Fox, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.
We TDI drivers don’t need no stinkin’ ignition coils, drifter.