VW plans to launch sales of its new Up microcar in Europe by December.
Volkswagen will formally introduce the production version of its newest – and smallest – car, the Up, at the Frankfurt Motor Show, next month. The micro-compact will reach European showrooms before year-end, though plans for a U.S. launch apparently remain “Up” in the air.
In many ways, the minicar is more like the original Volkswagen Beetle than the latest version of the Bug that TheDetroitBureau.com drove during a Berlin preview last month. (Click Here for that review.) The Up will become the smallest car in the VW line-up, at less than 12 feet nose-to-tail, focusing on the growing market for urban cruisers that can deliver space, fuel-efficiency and more driving fun than the traditional econobox.
VW first revealed the Up at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show with a conventional gasoline engine. It returned, two years later, in battery-electric form. Eventually, the maker is expecting to produce both versions.
The initial 3-door version will offer buyers a choice of two different 1.0-liter powertrains, one making just 59 horsepower, the other 74. Details of the E-Up haven’t been released but the lithium-ion-powered model is likely to deliver somewhere short of 100 miles range. A natural gas-powered model is also in the works.
VW will offer both the three-door and a 2-door, four-seater.
A special package for children, dubbed the kid box, is in the plans, as are city box and travel box packages. Two special launch versions of the Up, the Up! Black and Up! White will be offered, along with three different trim levels.
Look for an innovative cabin design that will incorporate a flexible electronic package anchored around what VW has dubbed the Portable Infotainment Device.
Additional technology will be in the cards for the safety-minded. VW will follow Volvo to offer a radar-guided system that can sense obstacles and bring the car to a screeching halt at speeds up to 18 mph. On the Up it will called the City Emergency Braking system.
Lifting a visual cut from the long-gone Dodge Neon, VW designers have incorporated a very obvious face into the front end of the new Up which “really appears to smile,” claims chief designer Klaus Bischoff.
The European version of Up will take on the likes of the Toyota iQ, Fiat 500 and the Mini, as well as the Alfa-Romeo MiTo. As many of those cars are or soon will be available in the States, the obvious question is when will Volkswagen bring the three-door Up here to the States?
For now, however, there are no specific plans, the maker cautions. But with the German brand aiming to more than double sales in the States by 2018, to 800,000 annually, it is rapidly expanding its line-up. That could very well leave an opening for the microcar if VW data crunchers find enough demand in the downsizing U.S. market.