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
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
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
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.
-
Utilitarian men’s fashion that will elevate your everyday
From Prada to Margaret Howell, utilitarian and workwear-inspired men’s fashion gets an upgrade for S/S 2024
By Jack Moss Published
-
Gerhard Richter unveils new sculpture at Serpentine South
Gerhard Richter revisits themes of pattern and repetition in ‘Strip-Tower’ at London’s Serpentine South
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Vipp’s Scandinavian guesthouse offers a sleek setting amid a wild landscape
Vipp Cold Hawaii is a Scandinavian guesthouse designed by architecture studio Hahn Lavsen in Denmark’s Thy National Park
By Sofia de la Cruz 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
-
Brilliant Volkswagen ID.Buzz cuts through the increasingly generic appearance of modern EVs
The Volkswagen ID.Buzz embodies automotive practicality and makes the most of Volkswagen’s EV platform, creating a family of vans, campers and light commercial trucks to match its historic Type 2
By Jonathan Bell Published