VW e-Up! EV price confirmed

Volkswagen has confirmed its e-Up! electric city car will cost £19,250 including the £5,000 government Plug-in Car Grant subsidy.

The car is on sale now in the UK at Volkswagen’s 24 specialist EV electric vehicle retailers, with deliveries starting at the end of January 2014.

And unlike some electric vehicles that require you to rent the car’s battery pack at a monthly cost (such as the Renault Zoe, or available as an option on the Nissan Leaf), the VW’s sticker price includes its power source.

Volkswagen

The car uses an 18.7kWh battery pack in conjunction with an 82hp electric motor driving the front wheels.

Five regenerative braking modes seems a little complicated to us

Accord to VW, this means the e-Up! can sprint from 0-62mph in 12.4 seconds, making it the fastest Up! variant in the range.

It should be spritely around town, too – with 155lb ft of torque available instantly from the electric motor, it’ll go from 0-37mph in just 4.9 seconds. Top speed stands at 81mph.

VW quotes a maximum driving range of 93 miles, which will more than likely be mutually exclusive to the maximum performance. But to eek the most from the battery, the German manufacturer has also equipped the e-Up! with three driving modes.

Alongside the standard setting there are ‘Eco’ and ‘Eco+’ modes to choose from – Eco reduces engine power to 67hp, softens throttle response and decreases the air conditioning system’s effect.

The e-Up! can be racharged to 80% in 30 minutes

Eco+ cuts engine power further to 54hp, modifies throttle response even more and disables the air conditioning altogether.

In conjunction with the different driving modes, VW has also developed no less than five regenerative braking settings: D, D1, D2, D3, and B.

In D the e-Up! will simply coast along when you lift off the accelerator. D1, D2 and D3 progressively increase the electric motor’s regenerative braking effect when lifting off, with B harvesting the most kinetic energy on the overrun.

All modes except for D illuminate the car’s brake lights when coasting, but a total of five seems a little too complicated to us.

Volkswagen

The e-Up! can be recharged using a standard three-pin UK mains socket, but is also compatible with VW’s Combined Charging System.

This incorporates the car’s on-board fast charging circuitry (fitted as standard), which can charge an empty battery to 80% in 30 minutes using a 40kW fast-charge electricity supply. A wall box is available as an option for faster home charging, too.

The five-door zero tailpipe emissions city car comes in one specification only and gets 15-inch ‘Tezzle’ alloy wheels, unique e-Up! exterior badging and ‘C-shaped’ LED running lights.

The VW e-Up! is based on the range-topping petrol-powered High Up! model, so receives heated seats, cruise control, Bluetooth and Volkswagen’s Maps and More satellite navigation system as standard.

On top of this the e-Up! also gets a heated windscreen, a DAB digital radio with six speakers, the German firm’s automatic City Emergency Braking system, rear parking sensors and climate control.

The Maps and More package has been adapted to show the location of EV charging stations, range mapping for one-way and round trips, and on-board energy management functions.

The 2014 Volkswagen e-Up! is on sale from today, 2 December 2013, priced at £19,250 after the £5,000 government plug-in car discount. Deliveries begin at the end of January next year.

By Sean Carson, contributor, MSN Cars