Volkswagen has revealed the new e-up!, an all-electric version of its brilliant up! city car.
Now, we could tell you about the e-up! drivetrain and predicted range, its launch date and its styling tweaks, but let's start by addressing the elephant in the room: the name.
We're guessing that Volkswagen doesn't employ any Yorkshiremen in its naming department, because if it did, one of them would have almost certainly pointed out the similarity between the car's name and a certain northern greeting. Honestly, it wouldn't have been so bad if they'd ditched the exclamation mark. As it stands though, VW might as well have called it the e-up-hows-tha-fettling-av-tha-got-time-for-a-brew.
Anyway, back to t' car (sorry). From the outside, the e-up! looks largely identical to its liquid-fuelled brother; however, underneath, the standard up!'s three-pot petrol engine has been ditched in favour of an 81bhp electric motor. 0-62mph takes 14 seconds and flat out the e-up will do 83mph.
The motor is fed from an 18.7kWh lithium-ion battery which provides enough juice for about 93 miles of driving. And when the battery goes flat, VW claims that it can be recharged to as much as 80 per cent capacity in just 30 minutes.
The e-up! can be differentiated from the standard up! thanks to the curved layout of its LED lights, its aerodynamically-optimised front end and its new 15-inch alloy wheels. On the inside, special chrome and leather 'accents' have been added and the seats get light grey covers with contrasting blue stitching.
The e-up! will make its motor show debut in Frankfurt this September. The first deliveries are expected to take place in early 2014.
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