Volkswagen has whipped the dust sheet from a “close to production” concept car, described by the firm as its “Beetle for the 21st Century”.
VW_eup_01 VW's E-Up! will be used as a design basis for its upcoming e-cars
Called E-Up! – making it a popular car for Yorkshire residents — the three-door hatchback apparently has a ‘3 …
This is a work of genius! As the diagram clearly shows, a car has finally been designed solely around the crucial activity of transporting cases of bottled beer.
One of these days, someone should write a piece on whether it's time to bother going over electric, considering relative costs of buying, running, maintaining and insuring etc. a 'leccymobile compared to a gas guzzler.
How much? I'm sick to death of auto makers pumping out flashy electric cars that are three times the price of a petrol equivalent. If this is going to be the Beetle for the 21st century, it should actually be like the Beetle - a car any family can afford.
I particularly admire the arrangements for keeping the rear passenger happy. Is that standard? Are refills free? More to the point, is there an option to replace the front passenger seat with a similar arrangement?
First shouting about the revolutionary 4motion which was surprise surprise something you can buy on YRV or Sirion 10 years ago, now this. The "revolutionary" sitting layout shown on this one has been around in Daihatsu concept vehicles as far back as 2003 and IIRC is already available on some of the current Daihatsu and Nissan production vehicles for the Japanese market...
I can see that they don't need all the space taken up by controls etc., but even on the Smart Car, not noted for its bigness, in fact pointedly the opposite, the front passenger seat is further back than the driver to enhance the drivers view at junctions. Reversing this doesnt seem like a good idea for other road users.
Or the front passenger if the vehicle the driver fails to see is big enough. Now if the +1 was the seat behind the front passenger, that would make more sense, or have I misunderstood?
Or do they me like the current "Beetle for the 21st Century”, expensive and niche, whereas "Beetle for the 20th Century” was designed to be cheap and mass market.
Given the type of modern, suburban, school-run family this is aimed at, I would have guessed that the "3" is the ... err ... 3 seats and that the "+1" is the gap that one can bolt a baby seat into.
so that 3 + 24 bottles of wine / pints of lager :)
Seriously now, it looks like these things are slowly developing useful power / range / charge values for the real world. I wouldn't go for one myself, but by the time the second generation rolls around in a few years there should be some seriously good kit around
Geeze, that's pretty crap. The 'Think' e-cars we have in Norway can do better than that and they're not that wonderful. Real-world driving, 170 km on one battery charge (albeit that takes about 9 hours from whoa-to-go). That being said, they're still shite cars.
Either get the charging of these battery packs down to 20 or so minutes to 80% charge or something realistic, or vastly increase the range of them.
This is the 21st century - if we cant have our freakin' flying cars, at least give us something fully electric that's not complete pants.
Somebody did, VW in fact - they have repeatedly said that electric cars don't make sense when compare to small efficient diesels when half your electric comes from coal.
So they build a 250mpg 2 seater diesel. But if people are demanding electric you have to pretend to build one - I doubt it will appear, at least in real numbers.
Is it really too far for fat townie cockwombles to just walk to the local Starbucks for their skinny jizzfroth and freetrade carrot muffin after a hard night's cottaging?
Oh I forgot. "It's sooooo esential to have a car for shopping." Bollocks.
Anyway, back to this useless waste of resources that will no doubt be accompanied by a gratingly smug telly advert. It has 4 seats. Bit pointless as townies are incapable of speaking to each other let alone have friends (if you exclude their cottaging crowd of course) but predictable nonetheless.
It claims to have a range of about 80 miles. They really should start quoting the usage in hours as these things will spend moer time sitting in a queue than actually going anywhere.
It's 800mm too long and far too heavy; the kerbweight is nothing to be proud of at all, and the rubbish packaging, fashionable glazing for the roof and tailgate with needlessly large lights only demonstrate VW's failure to offer something remotely relevant to the real problems facing personal transport. But it will come in a really stupid colour to remind you that you're saving the planet. Just the thing to impress Crispin and Tabitha.
... and it's easy to see why. The pollution is just sent elsewhere, like downwind of the coal plant (a place where few watermelons(*) chose to live). The huge batteries cause quite a bit of pollution in the mining and refining process, plus when you add in all the shipping ... Then there is the added weight of the battery systems, and if you want good mileage, you reduce weight; thus the batteries are contributing to something they're supposed to fight against.
On top of all this, cars like The Pious lose money. When GM and Toyota were busting up a joint venture earlier this year and divvying up what was left, Toyota offered the Prius to Gm to "sweeten the pot". GM, however, wouldn't take it because it would hurt GM's bottom line.
And honestly, a good diesel will get better mileage. My six year old VW Golf TDI gets 46MPG with my driving style. Besides, once you get past 40MPG or so, the fuel reduction (and thus pollution reduction) gains get smaller for each MPG you improve; it's an equation of diminishing returns.
I'm leaving now before El Presidente sends in the 1MPG Army tanks to take me away for re-grooving.
(*) - a P.J. O'Rourke term for post-Berlin Wall environmentalists: green on the surface, red to the core.
You can take ya broon (great tho it is) and stick on the far side of Co Durham - proper Yorkshiremen would have crates of Black Sheep (Riggwelter FTW... ;¬P''') and be thinking about 'Auld Roger', basically a home-brew job by one CAMRA pub, roughly 3x the strength of Rigg and only available to those in the South Riding... IIRC it's precursor was called 'Roger and Out' because that's roughly what happened. Course, IIcanRC then it means I didn't have enough ;-)
And don't mention Tetley's - no longer a Leeds brew. Plus S&N made such a mess of the Theakston's brand after they bought it that it doesn't count any more either, even though Paul Theakston came back to beat them all at it when he created Black Sheep Brewery in the grain store across the yard from the 'old place' - which he's now bought back.
Yorkshire and proud, from the best little city there!
Oh, and the car looks nice, but it doesn't quite have the range to take me from shore to red rose border, or top to bottom on the A1/M1. Guess it's meant for loiners, steelers and other urban types who think milk comes from a tap at the back of the corner shop... which means it needs to be given the Max Power treatment and marketed at 17-21yr olds, complete with lowering kits, body clutter, spoilers and fake cannon-sized exhausts, none of which make it to the insurance companies' attention (should they have bothered to buy any, that is - apparently parts of the West Riding have 40% uninsured drivers).
Boycott for PM (especially since Freddie went to bat on a higher plane), Clarkson for Transport Minister, Parky's got to head up the Diplomatic Service, etc, etc, etc. Sensible policies for a happier Britain.
"They really should start quoting the usage in hours as these things will spend moer time sitting in a queue than actually going anywhere."
I think you'll find that electric vehicles don't consume any power when stationary. It is one of the key advantages when compared with combustion engines.
They really should start quoting the usage in hours as these things will spend more time sitting in a queue than actually going anywhere
----
An electric vehicle can sit for weeks in a queue, cos there's no power being used, just battery leakage. Unless maybe the lights and radio are on. That's one reason they're good for urban stuff. Admittedly, the other is that it's short runs before getting back to a charge point. I'm using an electric scooter for work at the mo (and no it doesn't have 3 wheels, or only do 15mph), and apart from sounding like a milk float it's great! About a penny a mile for the leccy, and it gets me away from the bus queues. Course I don't get stuck in traffic queues as often, and can even use some bus-lanes 'cos it's a bike.
Not looking forward to the rain and snow though...
"I think you'll find that electric vehicles don't consume any power when stationary. It is one of the key advantages when compared with combustion engines."
The comment was a sarcastic remark to reflect the overwhelemed streets in urban areas from cars being used when the person could have opted for public transport or just plain old walked instead. Looks like that one flew way over your head.
Register
Volkswagen unveils Yorkshire-friendly e-car
Volkswagen has whipped the dust sheet from a “close to production” concept car, described by the firm as its “Beetle for the 21st Century”. VW_eup_01 VW's E-Up! will be used as a design basis for its upcoming e-cars Called E-Up! – making it a popular car for Yorkshire residents — the three-door hatchback apparently has a ‘3 …
This topic is closed for new posts.
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 10:51 GMT
Darren 4
E-Up #
Is that some bottles of Newcastle Brown Ale in the 3+1 Diagram??
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 10:51 GMT
calagan
You mean a "Yaris for the 21st century"? #
How does this look like a Beetle?
I'd expect more from VW than such a boring car with a 2013 production date. By then, Nissan, Honda (and maybe Mitsu) will own the market.
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 10:51 GMT
Mike Richards
Interior layout #
This is a work of genius! As the diagram clearly shows, a car has finally been designed solely around the crucial activity of transporting cases of bottled beer.
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 10:51 GMT
Richard 81
Time? #
One of these days, someone should write a piece on whether it's time to bother going over electric, considering relative costs of buying, running, maintaining and insuring etc. a 'leccymobile compared to a gas guzzler.
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 10:51 GMT
Tom Cook
So... #
How much? I'm sick to death of auto makers pumping out flashy electric cars that are three times the price of a petrol equivalent. If this is going to be the Beetle for the 21st century, it should actually be like the Beetle - a car any family can afford.
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 10:51 GMT
TeeCee
I like that! #
I particularly admire the arrangements for keeping the rear passenger happy. Is that standard? Are refills free? More to the point, is there an option to replace the front passenger seat with a similar arrangement?
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 10:51 GMT
Anonymous Coward
German Innovation? Bwahahaha.... #
VW copying Daihatsu again.
First shouting about the revolutionary 4motion which was surprise surprise something you can buy on YRV or Sirion 10 years ago, now this. The "revolutionary" sitting layout shown on this one has been around in Daihatsu concept vehicles as far back as 2003 and IIRC is already available on some of the current Daihatsu and Nissan production vehicles for the Japanese market...
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 10:57 GMT
M7S
Passenger seated forward of the driver? #
I can see that they don't need all the space taken up by controls etc., but even on the Smart Car, not noted for its bigness, in fact pointedly the opposite, the front passenger seat is further back than the driver to enhance the drivers view at junctions. Reversing this doesnt seem like a good idea for other road users.
Or the front passenger if the vehicle the driver fails to see is big enough. Now if the +1 was the seat behind the front passenger, that would make more sense, or have I misunderstood?
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 10:57 GMT
Fluffykins
E-Up #
Is that anything to do with a northern relative of Winnie the Poo's donkey friend EeeAww?
Coat.
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 11:23 GMT
Rob Kirton
Superb dual fuel hybrid #
80 miles on leccy, and then some sort of dual fuel hybrid with the beer crate arrangement on the back seat to get you home if the journey is longer.
On a more serious note, another disappointment. 2013? What are they thinking of. It just seem to me to be a "me too" PR spin.
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 11:23 GMT
davefb
how heavy ? #
Those batteries really aren't light are they. That seems a massive weight for such a small looking car.
Still , nice to see the people that brought you the Sharo(a)n haven't stopped with the comedy naming..
Next we'll have the 'Happen' "Ow-Do' and 'Luv' ..
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 11:23 GMT
Anonymous Coward
Beetle for the 21st Century #
Funny, looks like a Lupo...
Or do they me like the current "Beetle for the 21st Century”, expensive and niche, whereas "Beetle for the 20th Century” was designed to be cheap and mass market.
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 13:21 GMT
Will Shaw
Meh.... #
I'll hold out for the "Leccy THUMP"
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 13:21 GMT
Is it me!
Optimistic range? #
The current Toyota prius has the same size electric motor and the same size battery. On electric power only, it has a range of nearly two miles.
OK. this is a small car which the Prius isn't, but 80 miles seems just a tad optimistic. Or is the VW test track downhill all the way round?
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 13:21 GMT
Dazza2910
Slow on the uptake #
Toyota already have a 3+1 layout in their IQ, so that's not a new idea. It also looks very similar. Me thinks VW have been stealing ideas.......
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 13:21 GMT
andy gibson
I can't see #
a flat cap holder or whippet seat though.
Yorkshire and proud of it!
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 13:21 GMT
Captain TickTock
Eee-aww... #
Eee-aww is the electric paddle boat. (fink abou' it, luv)
yep, I'm going...
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 13:21 GMT
Jonathan Hogg
3 +1 #
Given the type of modern, suburban, school-run family this is aimed at, I would have guessed that the "3" is the ... err ... 3 seats and that the "+1" is the gap that one can bolt a baby seat into.
I assume the crates of booze are optional.
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 13:21 GMT
James Micallef
3+1 seating #
so that 3 + 24 bottles of wine / pints of lager :)
Seriously now, it looks like these things are slowly developing useful power / range / charge values for the real world. I wouldn't go for one myself, but by the time the second generation rolls around in a few years there should be some seriously good kit around
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 14:32 GMT
richard 69
yes, it's a lupo #
with massive battery pack and hopefully better build quality...
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 14:32 GMT
LINCARD1000
80 miles, really? #
Geeze, that's pretty crap. The 'Think' e-cars we have in Norway can do better than that and they're not that wonderful. Real-world driving, 170 km on one battery charge (albeit that takes about 9 hours from whoa-to-go). That being said, they're still shite cars.
Either get the charging of these battery packs down to 20 or so minutes to 80% charge or something realistic, or vastly increase the range of them.
This is the 21st century - if we cant have our freakin' flying cars, at least give us something fully electric that's not complete pants.
Ta muchly.
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 14:32 GMT
Martin 6
>Time? #
Somebody did, VW in fact - they have repeatedly said that electric cars don't make sense when compare to small efficient diesels when half your electric comes from coal.
So they build a 250mpg 2 seater diesel. But if people are demanding electric you have to pretend to build one - I doubt it will appear, at least in real numbers.
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 23:52 GMT
Pete James
so yet another urban thing #
Is it really too far for fat townie cockwombles to just walk to the local Starbucks for their skinny jizzfroth and freetrade carrot muffin after a hard night's cottaging?
Oh I forgot. "It's sooooo esential to have a car for shopping." Bollocks.
Anyway, back to this useless waste of resources that will no doubt be accompanied by a gratingly smug telly advert. It has 4 seats. Bit pointless as townies are incapable of speaking to each other let alone have friends (if you exclude their cottaging crowd of course) but predictable nonetheless.
It claims to have a range of about 80 miles. They really should start quoting the usage in hours as these things will spend moer time sitting in a queue than actually going anywhere.
It's 800mm too long and far too heavy; the kerbweight is nothing to be proud of at all, and the rubbish packaging, fashionable glazing for the roof and tailgate with needlessly large lights only demonstrate VW's failure to offer something remotely relevant to the real problems facing personal transport. But it will come in a really stupid colour to remind you that you're saving the planet. Just the thing to impress Crispin and Tabitha.
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 23:52 GMT
Richard 102
Don't care for electric cars ... #
... and it's easy to see why. The pollution is just sent elsewhere, like downwind of the coal plant (a place where few watermelons(*) chose to live). The huge batteries cause quite a bit of pollution in the mining and refining process, plus when you add in all the shipping ... Then there is the added weight of the battery systems, and if you want good mileage, you reduce weight; thus the batteries are contributing to something they're supposed to fight against.
On top of all this, cars like The Pious lose money. When GM and Toyota were busting up a joint venture earlier this year and divvying up what was left, Toyota offered the Prius to Gm to "sweeten the pot". GM, however, wouldn't take it because it would hurt GM's bottom line.
And honestly, a good diesel will get better mileage. My six year old VW Golf TDI gets 46MPG with my driving style. Besides, once you get past 40MPG or so, the fuel reduction (and thus pollution reduction) gains get smaller for each MPG you improve; it's an equation of diminishing returns.
I'm leaving now before El Presidente sends in the 1MPG Army tanks to take me away for re-grooving.
(*) - a P.J. O'Rourke term for post-Berlin Wall environmentalists: green on the surface, red to the core.
Posted Tuesday 15th September 2009 23:52 GMT
MrT
@ Newcastle Brown... #
You can take ya broon (great tho it is) and stick on the far side of Co Durham - proper Yorkshiremen would have crates of Black Sheep (Riggwelter FTW... ;¬P''') and be thinking about 'Auld Roger', basically a home-brew job by one CAMRA pub, roughly 3x the strength of Rigg and only available to those in the South Riding... IIRC it's precursor was called 'Roger and Out' because that's roughly what happened. Course, IIcanRC then it means I didn't have enough ;-)
And don't mention Tetley's - no longer a Leeds brew. Plus S&N made such a mess of the Theakston's brand after they bought it that it doesn't count any more either, even though Paul Theakston came back to beat them all at it when he created Black Sheep Brewery in the grain store across the yard from the 'old place' - which he's now bought back.
Yorkshire and proud, from the best little city there!
Oh, and the car looks nice, but it doesn't quite have the range to take me from shore to red rose border, or top to bottom on the A1/M1. Guess it's meant for loiners, steelers and other urban types who think milk comes from a tap at the back of the corner shop... which means it needs to be given the Max Power treatment and marketed at 17-21yr olds, complete with lowering kits, body clutter, spoilers and fake cannon-sized exhausts, none of which make it to the insurance companies' attention (should they have bothered to buy any, that is - apparently parts of the West Riding have 40% uninsured drivers).
Boycott for PM (especially since Freddie went to bat on a higher plane), Clarkson for Transport Minister, Parky's got to head up the Diplomatic Service, etc, etc, etc. Sensible policies for a happier Britain.
Posted Wednesday 16th September 2009 10:21 GMT
JohnG
Electric vehicle range - hours #
"They really should start quoting the usage in hours as these things will spend moer time sitting in a queue than actually going anywhere."
I think you'll find that electric vehicles don't consume any power when stationary. It is one of the key advantages when compared with combustion engines.
Posted Wednesday 16th September 2009 10:21 GMT
JohnG
Winter? #
How will you defrost the windows and keep warm during the winter months?
Posted Wednesday 16th September 2009 10:21 GMT
Anonymous Coward
@ Pete James #
----
They really should start quoting the usage in hours as these things will spend more time sitting in a queue than actually going anywhere
----
An electric vehicle can sit for weeks in a queue, cos there's no power being used, just battery leakage. Unless maybe the lights and radio are on. That's one reason they're good for urban stuff. Admittedly, the other is that it's short runs before getting back to a charge point. I'm using an electric scooter for work at the mo (and no it doesn't have 3 wheels, or only do 15mph), and apart from sounding like a milk float it's great! About a penny a mile for the leccy, and it gets me away from the bus queues. Course I don't get stuck in traffic queues as often, and can even use some bus-lanes 'cos it's a bike.
Not looking forward to the rain and snow though...
Posted Thursday 17th September 2009 21:47 GMT
Pete James
@ JohnG #
"I think you'll find that electric vehicles don't consume any power when stationary. It is one of the key advantages when compared with combustion engines."
The comment was a sarcastic remark to reflect the overwhelemed streets in urban areas from cars being used when the person could have opted for public transport or just plain old walked instead. Looks like that one flew way over your head.
This topic is closed for new posts.