VW E-Up: Small, Electric … and Happy

VW E-Up: Small, Electric … and Happy

By Stephen Williams

Torsten Silz/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagen’s chief executive, presents the E-Up, his company’s electric city car.

FRANKFURT — Volkswagen’s squat, snub-nosed E-Up Looks nothing like the Beetle, the New Beetle, or most other superminis at the Frankfurt Motor Show, but it’s clear that VW expects it to be the people’s car for 2020 and beyond.

With the E-Up, batteries are included, as is the promise that it will be roadworthy and on sale by 2013 — and proliferate by 2020. Martin Winterkorn, VW’s chief executive, said the E-Up “very realistically shows how we envision such a Volkswagen with pure electric drive, technically, visually and with regard to size.”

The E-Up is laden with about 500 pounds of lithium-ion battery and scoots from zero to 60 in just over 11 seconds. But don’t expect extended scoots: when fully charged, the cells last for about 70 miles.

Nearly two feet shorter than a Mini hatch, the E-Up’s styling keeps the new VW face — the car “really appears to smile,” said Klaus Bischoff, VW’s design chief — and has other strong family resemblances to the Golf and Polo. Inside the cockpit, the car has a three-plus-one seating arrangement, so that two adults can sit on the passenger’s side and a small person fits behind the driver.

The current plans are that the E-Up will complement diesel and gas versions of the Up city car, which had been introduced at previous auto shows. No word on pricing, and availability in the United States is a question mark at this point.