VW offers pure electric variant of its popular Up! car
When urban traffic returns to its previous levels, we predict more people will be seeking clean, modest, efficient and minimal transportation – enter VW
![city car](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/ca6MUwJ55r6UCPLS9qqCpB-415-80.jpg)
When it debuted in 2011, the little VW up! instantly became one of our favourite cars, especially if one overlooked that eager exclamation mark. The petrol-powered up! was about as basic as a modern car can get, with a wheel-at-each-corner stance and VW’s traditionally minimal detailing. The e-up! is the range’s pure electric variant, with all the amenities of its conventional sibling but the added delight of zero tailpipe emissions. At 159 miles, the range is at the lower end of what one might expect from a new electric car, but despite being perfectly capable of a modest excursion, the e-up! is ultimately a city car through and through.
As one of the smallest electric cars you can buy, the e-up! ticks almost every box in the city driver's dwindling option list; compact, peppy, practical, and low-key. The interior reduces instrumentation to a bare minimum with a dash mount that enables your smartphone to take over navigation and media player duties (although infuriatingly it doesn't seem to take larger-sized devices). Quality is up to usual VW standards, which means everything is satisfyingly solid, from buttons to interior materials. The flipside of such a small footprint is a lack of luggage space, but as we've already established, this is not a car for taking four people on a long road trip. However, if and when urban traffic returns to its previous levels, more and more people will be seeking clean, modest, efficient and minimal transportation. In this respect, the e-up! is all the car you would ever need.
There'll come a point in the next six months when VW will be complementing the e-up! with a home-grown rival, the all-new VW ID.3, just over half a metre longer and with double the range. Despite this, the ID.3 is still classed as a compact car and everyone is expecting it to shoot to the top of the EV best-seller lists (teething problems notwithstanding). So where will that leave the little e-up? We hope there'll still be a future for diminutive industrial design in all its forms – a world that desperately needs to re-focus its craving for consumption has to start somewhere. After all, the hitherto elusive delights of quiet roads, empty streets, temporary pedestrianisation, lowered air pollution and freedom of movement is making minimalists of us all.
INFORMATION
Volkswagen e-up!, from £22,865. volkswagen.co.uk
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House. He is also the host of Wallpaper’s first podcast.
-
Feel at home at Auberge, Château La Coste's new inn for culture lovers
Auberge La Coste sits at the heart of the art-filled estate, minutes away from the joyful town of Aix-en-Provence
By Harriet Thorpe Published
-
This Nova Lima apartment is a Brazilian family oasis with striking Minas Gerais views
A Nova Lima apartment designed by Jacobsen Arquitetura celebrates its long, natural Minas Gerais vistas
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Commune’s sustainable personal care products look ‘quite unlike anything else’
Commune’s Somerset-made products stand out in the sustainable skincare crowd. Madeleine Rothery speaks with the brand’s co-founders Kate Neal and Rémi Paringaux
By Madeleine Rothery Published
-
New Volkswagen California is a hybridised camper van that has it all
The Volkswagen New California camper van is here, the latest update to VW’s evergreen classic, bringing a larger platform, more flexibility and hybrid power for the first time
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
VW Golf at 50: the new model, and a look back at the pioneering small car
A VW Golf update brings new tech, innovations and efficiencies to keep the car at the heart of the brand 50 years after its debut
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
CES 2024 was a showcase for how to shoehorn AI into next-generation cars
CES 2024 in Las Vegas underlined that future mobility will be shaped by AI, like it or not, as intelligent assistants emerge to guide, plan and converse with their human cargo
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
24 transportation design innovations for 2024
From electric cars to new airports and sports boats, here’s a non-exhaustive list of 24 of the most interesting transportation design innovations to expect in the coming year
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Refreshed Volkswagen Touareg does the heavy lifting for long-distance travel
The new Volkswagen Touareg R eHybrid is the people’s luxury SUV, capable of going anywhere and doing anything. Does it stack up to rivals?
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Year in review: top 10 transport design stories of 2023, selected by Wallpaper’s Jonathan Bell
Jonathan Bell’s top 10 transport design stories of 2023 span from electric campers and microcars to flying yachts and classic car recreations
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Year in review: the top 10 cars of 2023, as selected by Wallpaper’s Jonathan Bell
What were the best four-wheeled offerings of 2023? Transport editor Jonathan Bell takes us through the year’s most intriguing automobiles
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Four new compact camper vans showcase the best in modest mobile home design
Volkswagen, Citroën, Ford and Mercedes-Benz showcase their latest takes on contemporary van living
By Jonathan Bell Published