Photo: Volkswagen
Volkswagen recently introduced a facelift for the Up! city car. Changes have now been announced for the e-Up! electric version as well, although they are must less obvious than the manufacturer says.
A new front bumper? Try a strip of blue and some tiny grilles that weren't there before. New headlights? Same as the old ones with minor revisions. Really, the only easy way to tell the 2017 model from the last one is the fact that the indicator lights have been moved to the mirrors.
Considering the e-Up! costs about four times as much as a Dacia Sandero and that too has indincators in the mirrors, we can hardly call it groundbreaking. Around the back, there's a new design for the taillights and another strip of blue trim. Think Blue, people!
While VW might want us to believe pricing is much better, it's exactly the same as before: €26,900. But there's a very popular EV rebate in Germany that can bring that down to €22,520 using the power of Europe's richest government. But it's not like this is the only car that the rebate applies to.
Even so, you're not going to buy this car unless you really want an EV because the basic Up! starts at €9,850 making it more than twice as cheap.
Power continues to come from an electric motor making 82 PS and 210 Nm of instant torque. The 18.7 kWh battery is supposed to give you 160 km (99 miles) of driving range, but the NEDC cycle used to measure it is... broken. Just to give you an example, the Nissan Leaf is rated at 200 km (120 miles) in Europe but the EPA says it will only do 99 miles.
Will you save money on gas? Well, VW estimates running costs of €3 per 100kilometers, but you could probably come close to that with a Prius.
Oh, and there's a bit of extra equipment. All cars will now come with a rain sensor, the 'Coming home/Leaving home' function for the light and a smart phone dock. Also standard are the Climatronic system, heated windscreen, leather steering wheel and auto braking. But a reversing camera costs extra.
Considering the e-Up! costs about four times as much as a Dacia Sandero and that too has indincators in the mirrors, we can hardly call it groundbreaking. Around the back, there's a new design for the taillights and another strip of blue trim. Think Blue, people!
While VW might want us to believe pricing is much better, it's exactly the same as before: €26,900. But there's a very popular EV rebate in Germany that can bring that down to €22,520 using the power of Europe's richest government. But it's not like this is the only car that the rebate applies to.
Even so, you're not going to buy this car unless you really want an EV because the basic Up! starts at €9,850 making it more than twice as cheap.
Power continues to come from an electric motor making 82 PS and 210 Nm of instant torque. The 18.7 kWh battery is supposed to give you 160 km (99 miles) of driving range, but the NEDC cycle used to measure it is... broken. Just to give you an example, the Nissan Leaf is rated at 200 km (120 miles) in Europe but the EPA says it will only do 99 miles.
Will you save money on gas? Well, VW estimates running costs of €3 per 100kilometers, but you could probably come close to that with a Prius.
Oh, and there's a bit of extra equipment. All cars will now come with a rain sensor, the 'Coming home/Leaving home' function for the light and a smart phone dock. Also standard are the Climatronic system, heated windscreen, leather steering wheel and auto braking. But a reversing camera costs extra.
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