VW e-up!

The VW e-up! is a stylish, compact city car

Introduction to the VW e-up!

First of all, the VW e-up! has a silly name and yes it does have an exclamation mark at the end!

So we don’t get ourselves tied up in grammatical knots, let’s call this compact Volkswagen electric car the ‘VW e-up’, without the exclamation mark. We could call it in the ‘VW eup’ to simplify even more, but that looks even more weird.

The VW e-up was designed from scratch to be either an electric car or a petrol car. This means no compromises have been made in the EV version. Let’s find out more about Volkswagen’s e-up electric car, the little brother to the larger e-Golf.

VW e-up – Range

The VW e-up has a 18.7 kWh battery, giving it a real world VW e-up range of roughly 75 miles.

The Volkswagen e-up range is fairly limited in today’s terms. This model of the car dates from 2016 and battery technology has improved a lot since then. All EVs available today have a better range, except the Smart fortwo, forfour, Citroen C-Zero and Peugeot iOn.

Having said that, the e-up is very much a city car, designed for shorter trips around town. You won’t often do more than 75 miles in a city environment in a day.

Who is the VW e-up for?

This VW e-up electric car is front-wheel drive, has 5 doors and 4 seats.

It comes with a 60 kW electric motor, providing 80 bhp. The e-up’s top speed is 81 mph, and it goes from 0 to 62 mph in 12.4 seconds.

This electric vehicle is ideal for city dwellers. It’s easy to park, nippy, and – with zero emissions – will always be accepted by councils in city and town centres.

Actually, there is no reason why you couldn’t also own this car if you lived in a village. As long as you don’t regularly need to go on trips further than 75 miles, the VW e-up is fine.

With its compact size, the e-up is clearly not a main family car, but could be a second car. It might be a way of moving into the electric car world when your current small car needs replacing.

Can the Volkswagen e-up be a commuter car? Probably only if you have a short drive to work. If your budget can stretch a little further, the 4-seater BMW i3 with its better range is an EV to consider for commuters. The e-Golf is another possibility, particularly if you want 5 seats.

• If you would like more information about EVs in general, please see our main Electric Cars page.

• For specific details about the e-up itself, see the main Volkswagen UK e-up website.

• Otherwise, please scroll down to the Reviews section below for independent analyses.