VW is starting offensive with CNG city cars

Car maker VW has experiences with CNG power supply over 20 years. But the share of CNG engines is not so wide, VW has got big expectations with new small model which belongs to new small family Eco UP! Buyers of Eco Up! will have car with cheap daily costs and ideal car for city traffic.

The popularity of cars with CNG is increasing is Europe from year to year. The reasons are the prices of fuel (diesel, petrol). More constructing exclusive models like CNG car models  have no success on market because of lasting economics crisis  with small demand for new cars and low buying activity. The additional costs for CNG version are quite high and customers choose mostly traditional variant with diesel or petrol.

VW already makes CNG cars two decades, but mostly for high-prices and commercial cars. In the VW offer were CNG models - Passat, Touran and Caddy. Now new VW Eco Up! will be in this group.

With VW Eco Up! there is still the disadvantage of higher buying price. The higher price has very short return time. Five door Eco Up! has the price about 10.800 EUR what is 2.400 more than basic model with 1.0 engine and 44kW output.

The basic 1.0 has about 4.5l/100km consuption, Eco Up! about 2.9kg/100km. It means that  100km with Eco Up! costs only 2.76 EUR vs 6.30 EUR with petrol version. So the owner has the higher buying price returned after about  6800km, what is yearly amount of km for occasional driver. The pizza delivery service will have returned money maybe in the first month.

Seat Mii and lack of informations

Seat Mii is third in order of car model in the new small family of Volkswagen Group. Mii was in sale first in home country of SEAT - in Spain. Starting of sale only in Spain causes almost zero market share in Europe. Besides this in Spain rests financial crisis and the sale of Seat Mii is not so big as expected.

According to car sales in 2012 Seat Mii has landed as number 149 in sales amount (in year 2011 got number 294). We have to mention that  for Seat Mii and its brothers VW Up! and Skoda Citigo that was first full year in the market. The best position has VW Up! on #31, Citigo was near Seat Mii but better on number #122.

source: http://bestsellingcarsblog.com/

VW UP crossover production is very likely

According to official VW press release concern would like make a new small family wider with new crossover model.  Handelsblatt newspaper announced that VW is thinking about crossover model since positive reactions to concept cross up! Automaker answered it very evasively to question about crossover - We follow everything about SUV. SUV are pretty interesting for us.

Manager of slovak factory of VW, where is this model build, says the production platform is prepared for wide range of models, not just for one. Currently this news have no details about selling date of crossover up. It is likely that price will be bellow 20.000€. 

Geneva Autoshow announced 4 variants of VW Up

Geneva 2012 study presents a new quartet VW Up. Swiss colors as vehicle shipping, car for pizza delivery or ski trip.

German giant car maker Volkswagen in Geneva continues to campaign to support the model Up!. The small hatchback has revealed in the serial version with three and five doors, at the Frankfurt Motor Show last year has also shown up to six different concepts. To these we now add four more names to the Swiss Up!, Winter Up!, X Up! and Cargo Up!

Swiss VW Up! based on the five-door versions and bears the sign located host exhibitions. Exterior covers Tornado Red color red, by white accents on the wheels and mirrors. The combinations of colors symbolize the Swiss flag. Is also tuned the interior, the seats were fixtures on the famous Swiss army knife.


Model Winter Up! study is an extension of the Frankfurt Cross Up!, presented in a peasant's shoes outdoor style with increased protective gear and plastic components. Winter edition of Up! is white with blue paint by Parts. On the roof of the integrated rack which holds four snowboards or six pairs of skis.

In a similar coat is made and X concept Up!, Presented as an expeditionary vehicle. The diminutive "allroad" has a strong orange paint, which contrasts with the white elements. The roof is a large storage box with lights built by researchers with high performance.

Study X Up! a powerful model in the roof lights

The last study is Cargo Up!, Which represents the commercial side of triplets and by Volkswagen would be an ideal example. the pizza delivery. Cargo Up! based on the three-door model, but has only two seats. Rear cargo space is created with a pair of boxes in the floor. The external environment is separate sheets instead of windows.


Cargo Up! is the perfect vehicle for example, pizza delivery

About Cargo Up! manufacturer also revealed further details. Under the bonnet is a known three-cylinder tuned to output 44 kW (60 hp). The concept reaches a speed of 160 km / h and average consumption of 4.5 l/100 km. At present it is possible that utility tuned version of the tiny Up! it gets later into production

We can say it is kind of VW UP tunning direct from VW manufacturer.

Euro NCAP VW UP crashtest

VW UP is world car of the year 2012

On car show event in New York in April professional jury announced the best cars for current year. Only models started for production in 2011 and later and with sales more than 500, had a chance to be in round.  The model VW UP from Germany won the main category the World car of the year 2012.

World car of the year 2012: Volkswagen up!

Ecology car of the year: Mercedes-Benz S 250 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY














Sport car of the year: Porsche 911















Best looking car of the year: Range Rover Evoque

VW Up and his competitors (size informations)

In following days we will bring you detailed comparison of vw up  competitors. All these models are few years on the market.  VW UP will be compared to Citroën C1, Peugeot 107, Toyota Aygo,  Kia Picanto, Hyundai i10 and Suzuki Splash and others small city car models.

In this blog we are comparing basic car sizes:

Volkswagen Up and his competitors with basic model sizes

model	wheel base [mm]	length [mm]	width [mm]	luggage boot [l]
Fiat Panda2	2300	3540	1590	205-860
Fiat 500	2300	3545	1625	185-610
Ford Ka	2300	3620	1660	225-710
Fiat Panda3	2300	3650	1640	225-870
Toyota Aygo	2340	3415	1615	140-780
Renault Twingo	2370	3600	1660	165-960
Chevrolet Spark	2375	3640	1600	170-568
Hyundai i10	2380	3565	1596	225-910
Kia Picanto	2385	3595	1595	200-870
Volkswagen up!	2420	3540	1641	251-951

Image source: google