Uprated electric e-up!
FIRST DRIVE We get behind the wheel of a car made to entice EV converts to VW
FAR from being on its way out, the little Volkswagen up! city car has been given an important task as it charges towards its ninth year of being on sale.
You see, next year Volkswagen will begin to roll out its family of ID. electric cars, all of which are built using a bespoke platform (called MEB) and designed as genuine alternatives to conventionally powered models such as the evergreen Golf. However, this latest incarnation of VW’s battery-powered e-up! will still provide the entry point and cheapest way into the German manufacturer’s new EV line-up.
Unlike its siblings from SEAT (driven Issue 1,602) and Skoda (Issue 1,604), which were not previously available as EVs, the e-up! is only undergoing a mild mid-life refresh.
It doesn’t receive a new identity under the ID. umbrella, because it’s not based on that new MEB platform. However, it does showcase just how fast battery tech is developing. The e-up! is still based on a modified combustion-engine chassis, but within the same space now sits a more energy-dense 36.8kWh battery. That’s almost double the previous capacity, and it means the e-up!’s maximum range leaps to 162 miles under WLTP rules.
That’s plenty for a car that’s designed mainly for nipping around town and for daily commutes; and while UK prices have not been confirmed, £20,000 after government incentives won’t be far from the mark. Aside from alleviating some range anxiety with the much-improved maximum distance on a charge, little else has changed. The addition of a few more airbags, lane-keep assist and changes to the body and roof colour palette mean that on the surface, the package is similar. So, in practice it’s likely you’ll find the e-up! a pleasant small electric car to drive. The controls are light, visibility is great, thanks to the boxy shape and large windows, and there’s a sure-footedness to the way you can weave it around.
Performance is strong, too, and you should discount the relaxed 11.9-second 0-62mph time. Off the line there’s that trademark hit of instant torque you’ll find in nearly every electric car, so it feels quick.
It gets up to its top speed of 81mph very easily too, so on shorter motorway journeys you won’t find the e-up! lacking the speed needed to cruise alongside other traffic. Fiddle with the gear selector and you can alter the strength of the brake regeneration.
Flick the car into one of its two batterysaving ‘Eco’ driving modes, and it’s still capable of doing 75mph. The electric motor does emit a faint whine at low speeds, but when you get moving, only the wind noise penetrating the small cabin is likely to bother you. Road noise is suppressed quite nicely, thanks to the skinny little tyres.
The interior itself clearly has its origins in Volkswagen’s past rather than the brand’s future. It’s still a low-tech affair, given that a proper infotainment unit remains absent from the e-up!’s dashboard. Instead you get a smartphone cradle above the radio, allowing you (or forcing you) to rely on a third-party mapping app of your choice. As an alternative, VW also offers its dedicated Maps & More app.
Given the price point, the materials used inside aren’t some of Volkswagen’s best, but the cabin is at least logically laid out, with decent room up front.
As for charging, VW hasn’t matched the new, larger battery with a faster recharging capacity. Topping up the battery up at 40kW from a CCS plug remains the quickest way,
“Off the line there’s that hit of instant electric torque, so it feels nippy at city-traffic speeds”
and a 0-80 per cent recharge will take around an hour. A 7.2kW AC wallbox for home charging will be offered as an option, enabling a four-hour recharge, while a standard three-pin plug should give the battery a full charge in around 16 hours.
The We Connect smartphone app enables remote control of the vehicle’s charging status and also offers pre-conditioning of the car’s climate control. This will allow owners to set the temperature of the cabin before they get into the car each day.
As ever, though, the biggest threat that this rejuvenated e-up! will face comes from sister cars within the VW Group. Both the SEAT and Skoda models get the same new extended-range battery, and both will cost you less money. Skoda is offering customers an innovative two-tier trim structure, which means that, with a little less standard kit, it’ll undercut the Volkswagen considerably. That car starts from just £16,955, while the top-spec Citigo model nips in under £20k.