First time we heard about the Volkswagen Up! Was for years ago, at the 2007 Frankfurt Motor Show, when the concept car previewing the upcoming urban car from the German company made its world debut. Now, at the 2011 edition of the German car show, the production version of the Up! Was officially unveiled for the first time.
Like many experts anticipated, the differences between the concept car and the production version are very small, the Germans preferring to keep the simple styling they unveiled in the first place. So the Volkswagen Up! has a front part that doesn’t surprise in any way, the headlights reminding of the Golf VI and a large badge, while front bumper integrates the front grille (an interesting solution for a production car), alongside the plates place and the fog lights. The rear part is even stranger, especially if we’re considering the current Volkswagen range, which features a classic look, without any styling experiments. But not the Up! The rear part is made almost entirely out of glass (we can see this feature today on cars like the Citroen C1, the Renault 107 or the Toyota Aygo), while the taillights have a vertical placement, with high-tech design.
The new small car from Volkswagen features the carmaker’s PID (Portable Infotainment Device), which allows the driver to control the satellite navigation, the phone, the sound system and other controls of the car. The system’s touchscreen display was developed in cooperation with Navigon and can be used to control other applications, such as the ParkPilot system.
Even though the concept car had a rear-mounted engine, on the production version the engine is mounted in the front and the car has front-wheel drive. And speaking of the engine, the Up! is powered by a new generation of three-cylinder engines. The first one is a 1.0-liter unit available with 59 hp and 74 hp, both having less than 100 grams per 100 km of CO2 emissions. Thanks to the BlueMotion technology and the Start&Stop system, the fuel economy is also great: the 59 hp engine has an average fuel consumption of 4.19 liters per 100 km (56.1 mpg), while the 74 hp unit does 4.27 liters per 100 km (55 mpg). After launch, the Volkswagen Up! will also be available with a natural gas powered engine delivering 67 hp and having an average fuel consumption of 3.2 liters per 100 km (73.5 mpg) and only 79 grams of CO2 per 100 km. Starting with 2013, Volkswagen will also introduce an all-electric Up!
The new Volkswagen Up! will go on sale this December, with more features and pricing details to be released at the car’s debut in Frankfurt.