The Volkswagen e-up! is an electric version of the up city car. Jonathan Crouch takes a look at the Wolfsburg brand's now-improved representative in this rapidly burgeoning sector.

Ten Second Review

The Volkswagen e-up! is an electric version of the popular up! city car with a now-longer WLTP-rated range of around 159 miles. It remains a strong package, but after a glance at the asking price, you might wonder how it can justify itself on the balance sheet against a more conventional petrol-powered up! That's what we're here to find out.

Background

Shall we get the jokes about this car being trialled first in Yorkshire out of the way good and early? Let's get to the facts here. Back in 2014, the e-up! was Volkswagen's first toe in the water when it came to electric cars. Back then, the battery range was rated at just 83 miles - and that was on the old, rather unrealistic NEDC cycle.

Today's e-up! can, in real terms, go almost twice as far, thanks to a larger lithium-ion battery pack and it's been much improved in terms of comfort and safety. As it needed to be to combat the new wave of small battery-powered models now hitting the market. Should this one be on your shopping list? Let's find out.

Driving Experience

The Volkswagen up! actually makes a great basis for an electric vehicle. The powerplant sits low in the engine, a lithium ion battery pack now almost doubled in capacity, up from 18.7kWh to 32.3kWh.

As well as a standard driving mode, the e-up! has two economy profiles as standard: 'Eco' and 'Eco+'. 'Eco' cuts the vehicle's peak power to 50 kW, reduces the output of the air conditioning system and modifies the throttle response. 'Eco+' limits maximum power to 40 kW, further modifies the throttle response and disables the air conditioning. On top of these different operating modes, the range of the e-up! can be greatly influenced by regenerative braking. There are five modes available: D, D1, D2, D3 and B. In D, the vehicle coasts when the accelerator is lifted.

Design and Build

Externally, the e-up! can be identified by badges on the front wings and bootlid, as well as by distinctive C-shaped LED daytime running lights, and 15-inch 'Tezzle' alloy wheels. But these are details. Essentially, aside from the lack of tail pipes, the five-door e-Up is hard to identify without looking for the badging. At just 3.54 metres in length, 1.64 metres in width and 1.48 metres in height, the Up is one of the smallest four-seater city cars, measuring a full 11cm shorter than a rival Fiat Panda. Clever packaging means that interior space is maximised. The wheelbase of 2.42m is one of the biggest in class, which combines with that compact engine and lateral radiator to allow the front bulkhead and crash structures to shift forward too.

The interior is colourful, with bespoke upholstery edged in blue, while the leather-covered steering wheel, gearlever and handbrake all have blue stitching. There's also the option of painted body-coloured panels. You need to look fairly hard for the e-Up specific switchgear, but that means the cabin design is clean and easy to get to grips with, featuring a compact centre pod for many of the minor controls. There's loads of storage and the cool dished three-spoke steering wheel frames an instrument cluster of impressive functionality.

Market and Model

You'll pay just over £20,000 for this car after subtraction of the generous £3,000 government grant for plug-in cars. As would be expected, that's not too much different a cost from that which has been applied to this model's two identically-engineered Volkswagen Group design stablemates, SEAT's MIi Electric and the Skoda Citigoe iV.

The standard e-up! specification is roughly equivalent to that of a range-topping petrol-powered up! model and includes luxuries such as heated front seats, cruise control and the Maps and More navigation system. Plus the e-up! adds a heated windscreen, DAB digital radio with six-speaker Sound Pack, the City Emergency Braking system, all-round parking sensors and an electronic climate control system. As well as the standard Bluetooth connectivity and navigation functions of the petrol-powered up!'s Maps and More device, the e-up!'s unit includes charging point location details, range mapping (both one-way and round-trip) and vehicle charging management functions, including the ability to pre-set the vehicle's interior heating or cooling for certain times.

Certain vehicle functions can also be operated remotely using Volkswagen's Car Net services on an Apple iPhone or Android mobile device. The e-up! comes with a three-year Car Net subscription that allows users to control or get information on charging status, battery management, doors and lighting, driving data, climate control and the location of the vehicle.

Cost of Ownership

The problem the e-up! faces that cars like the Renault ZOE don't is that it has a conventional petrol-engined sibling that throws costs into sharp relief. True, you'll pay very little to 'fuel' the e-up!; around £1 per charge on a typical UK electricity tariff based on about 30 miles per working day, which would total up to about £23 per month. In contrast, your monthly fuel bill in a petrol car based on that sort of mileage would be around £70 per month. So is saving £47 per month worth the inconvenience of owning a car that would take some planning to undertake a longer run at the weekend?

A standard full charge takes less than nine hours from a standard 230-Volt, 2.3 kW household socket. On top of this, all e-up!s have a DC fast-charging circuit as standard. Using the Combined Charging System (CCS), this enables a flat battery to be charged to 80 per cent in 30 minutes, at levels of up to 40 kW using a DC supply. Cables are provided to connect to both a standard UK three-pin socket and a CCS socket.

Summary

Viewed as an EV entity, the e-up! works well. It'll cost you a lot less than many other small electric vehicles, though you'll have to accept that it's slightly smaller and won't go as far as some rivals on each battery charge. It'll go a lot further than before though, in this improved form; that range increase has put this contender back in the game.

FACTS AT A GLANCE

CAR: Volkswagen e-up!

PRICE: £19,695 after Government grant

INSURANCE GROUP: 10

CO2 EMISSIONS: 0g/km

PERFORMANCE: Top Speed 81mph / 0-62mph 12.4s

FUEL CONSUMPTION: (WLTP range) 159 miles

STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Anti-lock brakes with brake assist, twin front and side airbags

WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height 3540/1640/1550mm