The VW Up! Thread

@Rouxenator

New Volkswagen e-Up to cost from £19,695 in UK

Electric city car will now offer 159 miles of range, with prices starting below £20,000

The new version of the Volkswagen e-Up has gone on sale in the UK with an official range of 159 miles and a starting price of £19,695, including the £3500 government grant.

Revealed at the Frankfurt motor show last year, the upgraded electric city car switches the 18.7kWh lithium ion battery of the original model for a larger 32.3kWh version. VW says the battery is capable of charging at 40kW, taking 60 minutes to charge to 80 per cent.

Power comes from an 82bhp electric motor, which allows the e-Up to achieve a 0-62mph time of 11.9sec and a top speed of 81mph.

The new e-Up also gains the upgrades made to the recently revamped petrol-engined Up, including a new multifunction camera offering Land Assist, curtain airbags and a smartphone integration cradle.


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@Rouxenator

Would you rather a new VW e-Up or a used BMW i3?

Volkswagen’s refreshed e-Up has finally gone on sale in the UK, with prices starting at £19,695 including the Government’s plug-in car grant.

Not bad, you might be thinking, especially with the e-Up’s new range of 159 miles from a more power-dense 32.3kWh battery – far better than the previous version’s sub-18kWh job that meant an ambitious maximum of 118 miles. But this month’s issue of TG magazine had us thinking – is there anything on the second-hand market that’ll provide the Up with some tough competition?

Well, it turns out that not only can you get a used BMW i3 for e-Up money, but you could actually have 2017’s updated 94Ah (33kWh) model. That’s a wonderfully-interesting, carbon-tubbed, 10,000-mile EV for the same outlay as a new Yorkshire Up.


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VW to replace Up with ID.1 electric city car

The VW Group plans to launch 75 EVs between now and 2029 and its MEB all-electric platform will form the basis of most of those products, including an upcoming city car that will replace the venerable Up.

According to British Car magazine, the ID.1 will be the smallest ID model in an initial EV range of around 7 models. The electric city car, expected to make its global debut in 2023, will have a 5-door configuration, a distinctive blocky shape and minimal overhangs. It should have approximately the same dimensions as the Up, but is likely to be far more spacious inside than its predecessor by virtue of its EV-specific platform.

It’s anticipated that the Wolfsburg-based brand’s entry-level EV will borrow some of its styling cues from the ID.3 premium hatchback and underpin “ID.1 Crozz” crossover and “e-Roomzz” panel-van variants. Volkswagen seems to have taken Fiat's cue (to make the follow-up to the current 500 an exclusively all-electric model), which seemingly predicts the end of the Up in the medium term, although this has yet to be confirmed.

 
Volkswagen Up 1.0 2020 UK review

Should I buy one?

Even almost a decade on from its launch, the Up remains a completely competent city car with a cheery character that would no doubt make almost any new or urban-confined driver very happy indeed.

However, it does look much less like the brilliant bargain it once was, due not only to the price rise but also because of the arrival of objectively better rivals from Korea: the latest Kia Picanto and Hyundai i10.

It's also puzzling that Volkswagen recently decided to remove automatic emergency braking from the options list in favour of standard lane-keeping assistance. By anyone’s reckoning, the former is of far greater value in a car meant for the city.

Volkswagen Up 1.0 5dr specification

Where Sussex, UK Price £12,840 On sale Now Engine 3cyls, 999cc, petrol Power 59bhp at 5000-5500rpm Torque 70lb ft at 3000-4300rpm Gearbox 5-spd manual Kerb weight 980kg Top speed 101mph 0-62mph 14.9sec Fuel economy 51.2mpg CO2 100g/km Rivals Kia Picanto, Hyundai i10, Toyota Aygo


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Looks like Jonny forgot to first browse through the VW e-Up! Owner's Manual BEFORE trying to hunt for the USB port, try to detach the charging port covers (even resorting to Mat Watson's 'Stick of Truth' in an effort to dislodge them) and find out that there IS in fact a sunglasses holder - it's cunningly concealed in the glove-box lid!

What a plonker...!
 
Volkswagen e-Up 2020 UK review

Should I buy one?

The gaggle of all-new electric cars hitting the market in 2020 might have attracted plenty of attention, but the fact that most of them are £30,000 cars stands to disappoint those who simply hope to replace a petrol-powered supermini with an electric one and pay a like-for-like price.

Sadly, even though the EV market is changing fast, that kind of swap is not possible yet; and this Up won’t be the answer to their prayers because, since it’s a city car with a usable 110- to 130-mile range, it simply won’t be usable enough.

But if you’re looking for a specialist urban hopper as your second car, and therefore range and space are less of an issue, you should certainly consider it. It’s more usable than some small EVs and cheaper than others, and a surprisingly breezy and enjoyable car to drive to boot.

VW e-Up specification

Where Feltham, UK Price £20,195 (after government grant) On sale Now Engine Permanently excited electric motor Power 81bhp at 2800-12,000rpm Torque 155lb ft at 0-2750rpm Gearbox Direct drive Kerb weight 1235kg Top speed 81mph (governed) 0-62mph 11.9sec Battery 32.3kWh (net), lithium ion Range 159 miles (WLTP) CO2 0g/km Rivals Skoda Citigo iV, Renault Zoe


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Looks like Jonny forgot to first browse through the VW e-Up! Owner's Manual BEFORE trying to hunt for the USB port, try to detach the charging port covers (even resorting to Mat Watson's 'Stick of Truth' in an effort to dislodge them) and find out that there IS in fact a sunglasses holder - it's cunningly concealed in the glove-box lid!

What a plonker...!

It's also the most stupid and useless sunglasses holder you'll ever find in a car. The one in my wife's hasn't been used once in the almost 4 years we've had the car. Whereas the one in my car, it's situated above the rear view mirror, is being used permanently. The space just behind (or above actually) the front cupholder is a lot nicer to use as a sunglass holder.
 
Skoda axes Citigo city car

The Citigo, in both combustion-engined and electric variants, is no more and will not be replaced

The Skoda Citigo is officially no more, as the Czech maker focuses its efforts on larger models and electrification.

The future of the city car, which is a sibling of the Volkswagen Up and Seat Mii, has long been in question, but Skoda sales and marketing boss Alain Favey has now confirmed it will not return.

He said: “Citigo is gone - as far as Europe is concerned we are sold out. There will not be a replacement of the Citigo and we have no intention to have a car of this size in the future.”

The combustion-engined Citigo went off sale in late 2019 in the UK, but the model continued with the electric Citigo-e iV. The zero-emissions model went on sale in early spring, and the UK’s 400-unit allocation quickly sold out. Customer deliveries will be complete by the end of this year, said a Skoda UK spokesman.

A new, small electric car, which could potentially succeed the Citigo, is not currently on the table, said Favey. “If one day there is a version of the Volkswagen Group’s [electric] MEB platform which allows smaller cars to be produced [than now], we would have a Skoda version, but I don’t know about such plans. But as far as the Citigo is concerned, the game is over.”


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Farewell, Up! Volkswagen SA has stopped bringing in its small hatch

Volkswagen South Africa has confirmed it is no longer bringing in the Up small hatchback, although stock of certain derivatives is still available locally.

We noticed the Up range listed on VW SA’s website had been trimmed from four derivatives to just two (and noted just 14 units were registered across the country in August 2020) so asked the company about its plans for the city hatch.

The Wolfsburg-based firm’s local division told CARmag.co.za it had stopped ordering the Bratislava-built five-door hatch earlier in 2020, saying it was instead “focusing heavily” on its Polo Vivo hatch line-up as well as its “growing SUV range”.

While the entry-level Take specification and mid-tier Move trim are still listed (for R182 700 and R198 500 respectively), the Beats and Cross variants have been removed from the local website. Before being pulled from the line-up, the Beats and Cross derivatives had both been priced at R214 900.


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