VW announces longer range e-Up for autumn
According to sales director Jürgen Stackmann, not only will VW present the series version of the ID.3 at the IAA, but also a revised e-Up with a longer range and the series version of the fully electric SUV coupé model, ID. Crozz.
The e-Up! in a new, range-strong electric version could be the end of the conventional model, although VW has not said that much. So far, the Up! has been built together with its sister vehicles Seat Mii and Skoda Citigo, which will also have electric versions shortly. Stackmann had already announced an electric Up with more range in a tweet at the end of March:
A fantastic #eCar for #urban environments! Had a #testdrive with the next update of the #VWeUp! Significantly more range and a new #VW #CoreApp. #ThursdayThoughts pic.twitter.com/RcxFByGkaW
— Jürgen Stackmann (@jstackmann) March 28, 2019
As before, Volkswagen is also to plan a low-cost City BEV in a Polo format on the MEB platform. But given the slow decline in battery costs, the market launch is not expected until 2023. In this respect, the e-Up that is not MEB based has a considerable gap to fill with a technical update much needed. In the past five years, the e-Up has been optically overhauled and also priced, but the drive remains the same: an electric motor with 60 kW and a battery with 18.7 kWh. The range is 134 km (WLTP).
Above all, Volkswagen now seems to want to turn up (no pun intended) the range considerably. Interesting in this context: In spring 2018, Skoda confirmed rumours that an electric Citigo based on the VW e-Up would be launched on the market as the brand’s debut electric car by the end of 2019 – and with a significantly longer range than the current e-Up, at about 300 kilometres. Building on the same platform, the Seat e-Mii is also expected.
Curiously, VW had to stop orders for the current version of the e-Up at the beginning of the year. The delivery capacities were exhausted, despite the sales figures leaving much to be desired not all too long ago. But a price reduction by almost 4,000 euros, which Volkswagen introduced in November 2018, apparently caused demand to rise to such an extent that Volkswagen could not build enough electric cars fast enough.
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