VW unveils an extended UP! family in Frankfurt

VW has today surprisened everyone at the Frankfurt Motor Show after unveileing not one but 7 cars under the name up!. Everyone was expecting the presentation of the new urban city car by the German brand, but VW had a surprised reveserved for the public present at the enormous stand.

The new line up! includes the Cross up!, GT up!, buggy up!, eco-up! e-up! and the up! azurra sailing team.

The buggy up! represents the lifestyle associated with the buggies first developed in the 1960s in California. It is a classic two-seater buggy but instead of using GRP, the buggy up! is made of high-tech, lightweight construction steels. The buggy is based on the underbody, running gear and drive technology of the up! while it has an open design. Special attention was paid to safety, ensuring the passengers’ security through body reinforcements and a roll bar behind the two seats. A special feature of the buggy up! is its waterproof interior. It has drains in the vehicle floor as well as in the seats which are coated with neoprene material.

The up! azzurra sailing team was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and Walter de Silva. The meditarenean environment inspired the open, small, eco-friendly concept. The prototype is intended to be used at marinas, its name is taken from a yacht club on the Costa Smeralda. Different from the Up! this concept car is completely open, without doors or roof. All materials used in the car are waterproof and resemble the interiors of a luxury yacht. In that sense the up! azzurra sailing team works as a link between the heritages of Italian yachts and German automobiles.

The cross up! is, despite being a concept car, quite close to the production model. According to VW, the cross up! represents the looks of the four-door up!. With this version, Volkswagen broadens its range of Cross models which offer customised and rugged Volkswagen designs. The version is set apart with its four-door design and different styling of the C-pillars. It also shows the characteristics of the Cross models: wheel well extensions and side sill extensions designed in a dark anthracite, black side protection strips above the sills and an extra 15 mm ground clearance.

The GT up! is the more powerful version of the Up! and stands in the tradition of the GTI. According to VW it could be fitted with a 100 hp engine. The front bumper has been redesigned with a large, central cooling air intake with a grille in honeycomb look. Two cooling air intakes serve the brakes. The GT up! features painted side sills, black door mirrors and 17-inch alloy wheels with 195 tyres as well as a roof edge spoiler to generate downforce at the rear axle. A double flow exhaust system supplies the sound.

The eco up! runs on natural gas and features BlueMotion Technology (Stop/Start system and battery regeneration). The car emits just 79 g/km CO2. Volkswagen is using a newly developed 1.0-litre three-cylinder engine for the eco up!. It delivers 50 kW / 68 PS. An EcoFuel version without BlueMotion Technology will already launch on the market next year. Its will have a combined fuel consumption of 3.2 kg/100 km natural gas (CNG = Compressed Natural Gas).

The e-up! will be launched as production version in 2013. Distinctive for the e-up! is the arc-shaped layout of the LED daytime running lights in the bumper. The interior of the e-up! is held in beige colours. The concept car reaches a top speed of 135 km/h equiped with an electric motor with a peak power of 60 kW (continuous power: 40 kW). It develops a high maximum torque of 210 Newton metres from a standstill. The battery capacity of 18kilowatt-hours (kWh) enables distances of up to 130 km, depending on driving style.