Volkswagen E-Up! concept rolls into Frankfurt, hits the road in 2013
By Donald Melanson 
posted September 15th 2009 4:53PM
posted September 15th 2009 4:53PM
Volkswagen's E-Up! concept vehicle has been making the rounds for a little while now, but it looks like the automaker has really stepped up its game (and hype machine) for its appearance at the Frankfurt Motor Show, where it also took the opportunity to announce a launch date. That will apparently happen sometime in 2013, when Volkswagen hopes that the vehicle will become nothing short of "the Beetle of the 21st century." A lofty goal to be sure, but the E-Up! does have quite a bit going for it compared to other all-electric vehicles, including a new "lightweight," five hundred pound lithium-ion battery pack, a promised range of 130 kilometers, a full recharge in less than five hours, and even some solar panels on the roof and the sun visors to add a bit of extra power to the car's electrical system. Hit up the link below for the complete rundown, and plenty of pics courtesy of our pals at Autoblog Green.
The idea of Volkswagon making an ELECTRIC car, just has fail written all over it! :-P
@ crawdad689: bullsh*t
You're crazy. Volkswagen and Audi's are quality cars.
jesus, guys, it's just a joke. You're high off your asses if you disagree that VWs have been plagued with electrical issues for decades, now. :-|
yes they had electrical problems for a long time but since 2006ish they have been far improved. and last time i checked jokes were funny
Ah, a joke. You forgot to be funny.
iCrap: i own 3 of them. piss off you toll. i swear you just want to piss everyone off
Wow iClap, I'm surprised you haven't been banned yet. Remember folks, hit the lovely gray [ ! ] button to the top right of his comments. He'll be gone in no time.
btw the 3 VDubs that i own are 1997, 1987 and 1984 and they all run. so your 3 years stat that you pulled out of your butt is nonsense
Crawdad is right about electrical problems being more common in VW's than other makes. I'm on my second TDI and I know of the possible pitfalls but I still buy 'em. I don't think the Jetta A5 is as prone to them as the A4, however.
look guys, the design is ok, the range is ok and the price will probably also be ok, but 2013 is just a far cry too long to wait.
It gives them time to reconsider that reprehensibly stupid name.
When will companies learn not to put punctuation in a product name?
Will sell 200 cars god knows to who and it will be remembered as a fun R&D idea.
I sulk and demand hydrogen cars now.
I hope you have a half a million dollars to purchase the 20 lbs of platinum needed to run the fuel cell. Most people don't. That is why no car companies are talking up their hydrogen cars right now. Real car companies like VW, GM, Honda, Toyota, etc. can't get by with making $100,000 cars. They have to make $15,000-20,000 cars. That's the sweet spot for 90% of the population. Hydrogen has been promised for decades. It just can't be done on a financially viable basis. Unless a meteorite mad of platinum hits the earth, I wouldn't hold your breath for Hydrogen power.
$100,000? What is this, the 20th century?
Modern GM hydrogen fuel cells contain 30 grams of Platinum. That's less than one troy ounce. That's about $1,300 at today's prices. Here's a link to fuel cell information: http://hydrogendiscoveries.wordpress.com/2009/08/15/next-generation-chevy-equinox-hydrogen-fuel-cell-vehicle-costs-14-of-previous-version/
E-Up = E-Edsel ... so ironic... that history is doomed to repeat... well it was 50 years ago and automobile history is not a mandatory course in the VW design academy... too bad. I have higher hopes.
um Edsel was Ford not VW. so what's your point?
More tiny crap for europe, The US market will never open up in numbers to these little deathtrap toys
Indeed. They like their deathtraps much bigger.
yeah, we like our huge death trap toys so much more.
Why just kill yourself, when you can kill someone else too. -Hummer
Wait, hold-up. Did I hear you right? 'More tiny crap for Europe', 'little deathtrap toys'. Do you have any idea what you're talking about?
We have many cars in Europe, and many are small. On top of this many are GOOD, only a few aren't. It's arrogant Americans like you (who, i hope, are far in the minority) who still cling on to the 'bigger is better' idea, while failing to see that nearly all the cars sold by US manufacturers are shite and that's the reason that while European and Japanese car companies post losses or a reduction in profit the entire US motor industry seems to collapse.
And as for 'little deathtraps toys', it's just stupid to think small = dangerous as it is to think big = safe. In Europe we have the NCAP rating system for crash protection, from 1 (bloody awful) to 5 (Excellent), and as I look down the listings in a car magazines looking for Small cars such as the above I see ratings of 5 star, 4-star, 4-star, 4-star, 4-star, 4-star, 4-star, 4-star, 4-star, 5-star, 5-star, 5-star, 5-star, 4-star, 4-star, 4-star, 5-star, 5-star. So safety is not an issue. They are hardly death traps. However, i look at the Chevrolet Aveo and find... 1 and a half stars. And that car is bigger than this one.
It boggles my mind how absolutely ignorant and closed-minded you are. First of all, gasoline is MUCH MUCH more expensive in Europe than it is here in the US, which is why they mostly drive smaller cars in Europe. It is also the reason more than half of Europeans drive diesel-powered cars (most diesels can average well over 40mpg). Therefore, they are not "toys." Their size serves a purpose. Secondly, European (especially German) cars such as VW, BMW, M-B (the obvious 3) are some of the safest cars in the world and always come with every available safety feature as a standard feature. After all, they are rarely posted speed limits in Germany and they have a MUCH lower vehicular crash death rate than the US (even when compared per capita). I surely hope you are simply a troll, otherwise you represent Americans as ignorant consumers who demand everything larger (and less economical) than necessary.
@ginger:
I'm not disagreeing with you.. I have a compact Japanese car and love it (and haven't owned an american-company POS in years) but pointing at the Aveo is wrong. It's made by Daewoo [a company] that Chevy bought. It's an Asian-made car.
You know all these car companies that put out these electric vehicles are assholes b/c they over charge for themc..Lets just say the average person spends 17k on a new vehicle purchase..in order to get a new electric car you end up having to spend double that so whats the point..the extra amount you end up having to spend to get this new electric technology is prob equivalent to the amount you would spend on gas in the cars lifetime. Im not saying im 100% accurate but do you get what im hitting at.
Ross, Ross, Ross,
They are not "assholes" because the cares are expensive. This is new technology on new platforms using new manufacturing techniques used to build a new generation of cars. Of course it is going to be expensive. This is not the manufacturers trying to screw their customers. Most manufacturers will make little if any money (and often lose money) on the first iterations of these vehicles, but they must run this risk in order to develop this new generation of vehicles.
It is similar to what happened with the early generations of computers, flat screen tvs, and other products. The first ones were high priced. Early adopters bought them because they needed or wanted them. That helped pay for the research and improvements that resulted in much cheaper versions later on. This pattern repeats its self time and again around you.
Please think before you post.
Why so far away? why not next year?
Cars have to go through a boatload of regulations before they can be sold. (Pun intended, sorry) They have to be checked for emissions, crash testing, break testing, and a million other tests. Also, a brand new car like this one will need an entirely new manufacturing plant constructed for assembly. You need to work out deals with parts suppliers, train maintenance personnel, etc., etc. etc.
PLUS, one actually has to be built first. This is just a 'concept' car. That means it probably doesn't really work.
So if they're hoping it'll be the Beetle of the 21st century, does that mean they stole the design for this too? And will Hitler come back to go on parade in one?
@ DallasM
I could not reply above ( engadget sort it) ...
I am not sure where you got these figures, they are hard to get by and I am not sure which ones are real and which ones are fantasy.
However if I have to trust some figures published in 2007 it seems that to power a FCX Clarity ( 2009 ) you will need £ 3000 worth of Pt.
Also pt-free FC are said to become a reality in the immediate future.
I will take my 6700 lb Fullsize Dodge Ram quad cab over any of these tiny cars, Size does equate to safety in a collision. and it is not ignorant to demand larger vehicles if that is what we want to drive. MOST americans will never drive these tiny cars.
I think you'll be surprised when most Americans convert to electric transportation, as they don't have their sense of masculinity tied up in what they drive. For ordinary people cars are about getting from point A to point B, and with battery leasing options and battery swap stations instead of gas stations, EVs will get the same range as any gas vehicle and cost roughly the same while requiring far less maintinence.
It's not about masculinity, EVs will not be aany more than a VERY SMALL niche for a long time to come. The electrical grid can't handle air conditioning in the summertime and Obama and the enviro weenies want to put millions of EVs on the grid too, Good luck, Now if the we can ramp up the building of Nuclear plants (like we should have been doing for the past 35 years were it not for the enviro weenies again) maybe we could handle that load.
My situation is not unique in that A to B is just the start of my day, then there is c,d,e & f with a typical day being anywhere from 150-500 miles on the road.
Also to the comment that American vehicles are "shite" My work van is a 2000 Dodge caravan with 320,000 miles / 514992 km and still runs great and gets 25 miles per gallon.
My thoughts are that this is too litte, too late. This VW car with 130 km range and 5 hour recharge time is nothing special compared to the iMiEV, Chevy Volt and others which are being released this or next year, or in the case of the iMiEV have already been released. By 2013 this VW car better sport some much improved specs or it'll be ignored.
Colour me not impressed.
"Nubs"? Is that some new put-down?
Rub-a-dub-dub, three nubs in a tub.
What's next, calling people "dimples"?