Electric VW up! by 2013

Volkswagen will launch an all-electric version of its award-winning Up! city car this time next year - before we’re able to buy an electric version of the Golf - a VW source has confirmed to Auto Express.

 

The VW e-up! will use a similar electric set-up to that used in the upcoming Golf Blue-e-motion, with an 80bhp electric motor powered by lithium ion batteries. We drove a prototype version of the e-up! in January and were impressed by the car’s performance, refinement and charge time of just five-and-a-half hours.

 

VW has also said that its electric cars won’t be loss leaders – implying that manufacturers such as Nissan are making a loss on every car they sells.

 

That means the Golf Blue-e-motion, due on sale in the summer of next year, is likely to cost slightly more than its direct rivals. By then an electric version of the Ford Focus will have joined the Leaf and Renault Fluence and Zoe on the market. We’d expect the Golf to cost close to £30,000, including the Government’s £5,000 EV grant.

 

That also means that the e-up! won’t be cheap. VW wouldn’t be drawn on a price, but we’d expect it to be around the £20,000 mark.

 

Speaking before the Beijing Motor Show at Volkswagen’s exclusive preview event, R&D boss Dr Ulrich Hackenberg said: “We hope that hybrid and electric drive cars make their breakthrough.”

 

“But every new Volkswagen that is launched will be 10 to 15 per cent more efficient than the one it replaces.”

 

China now accounts for 29 per cent of VW’s worldwide volume. The company has chosen the Beijing show to unveil its new e-Bugster concept car, plus a new Chinese market-only saloon called Lavida.