Auto Car | 2009 Volkswagen E-Up | While today might be the middle of September, 2009, Volkswagen is looking to the future. 2013 to be exact. That's when Chairman Martin Winterkorn says they'll be launching the E-Up!, an all-electric city specialist. The E-Up!'s killer app is the lightweight lithium-ion battery that kinda tips the scales at five hundred pounds. That might sound like a lot, but keep in mind that the Panasonic Metal Case Prismatic pack in the Prius weighs over 100 pounds and has a gasoline engine to boot. Not so with the E-Up! The whole teeny kit and kaboodle clocks in at a sprightly 2,387 pounds.
Volkswagen's already calling the E-Up! the Beetle of the 21st Century (no word from VW on how the current New Beetle feels about it), and based on their claim that 100 kilometers (62 miles) of driving can be had for just €2 (like five bucks) we see no reason to protest. Interestingly, the E-Up! is the smallest VW ever, so tiny in fact that it's a 3+1 seater. Because Volkswagen largely eliminated the E-Up's dashboard, the front passenger seat is about five inches forward of the driver's seat, increasing the leg room for that person seated directly behind the passenger. The person seated behind the driver, well, he's out of luck. But in a pinch you can carry around a fourth passenger.
There's a 1.4 square meter solar panel on the roof that adds power to the E-Up!'s electrical system. Not enough power? Flip down the solar cell covered sun visors and voila! -- you have 1.7-meters of solar power. That power in turn spins a electric motor that makes 155 lb-ft of torque at zero rpm. This can move the E-Up! from a standstill to 60 mph in just over eleven seconds. News flash: the E-Up! is not a Lamborghini. Still, if like Volkswagen is predicting, E-Up!s (or is that E-Ups!?) will spend most of their time in the city then who cares? Future E-Up! owners, we guess. Full details in the press release below the fold.
The 135 km/h fast 3+1 seater is driven by an electric motor with a peak power output of 60 kW (continuous power: 40 kW). The motor of the front-wheel drive car, which is mounted in front, develops a maximum torque of 210 Newton-meters right from rest. The driver activates forward or reverse gear via a rotary knob in the centre console. The fact that the Volkswagen E-Up! Concept will also quite clearly offer driving enjoyment is demonstrated by a look at the car’s classic 0 to 100-km/h sprint time: 11.3 seconds. The Volkswagen E-Up! Concept develops even greater responsiveness in the intermediate sprint from 0 to 50 km/h in city driving: 3.5 seconds. This dynamic performance is based first on the electric motor’s excellent torque characteristic and second on the low kerb weight of the Volkswagen E-Up! Concept, which is just 1,085 kilograms.
Lithium-ion battery: The car’s low weight is quite astounding, given the fact that 240 kilograms are taken up by the lithium-ion battery. The implemented battery’s energy capacity of 18 kilowatt-hours (kWh) enables driving distances of up to 130 kilometres, depending on driving style – enough for the city and the drives of most commuters. The Volkswagen E-Up! Concept will be “refueled” in the garage at home, in a parking structure or on the road at one of the future municipal recharging stations that will be enabled by chip card. Depending on the available charging infrastructure and the battery’s momentary charge state, the storage battery could be charged to up to 80 percent of its total capacity within an hour.
If the batteries are recharged in a home garage, for example, by plugging it into a 230-Volt household outlet, this would take a maximum of five hours. Generally, off-peak night-time electric rates are very inexpensive. So refueled at night the Volkswagen E-Up! Concept could be driven 100 kilometres for just two Euros in electricity costs (about 14 Euro cents / kWh).
The batteries themselves are housed in the underbody of the Volkswagen E-Up! Concept To optimally distribute the weight of the battery system, it is housed in a special, crash-protected tray in the underbody frame. Air cooling ensures a constant heat balance within the batteries. The fans and heat exchangers needed for this are housed in the front section of the underbody.
Volkswagen's already calling the E-Up! the Beetle of the 21st Century (no word from VW on how the current New Beetle feels about it), and based on their claim that 100 kilometers (62 miles) of driving can be had for just €2 (like five bucks) we see no reason to protest. Interestingly, the E-Up! is the smallest VW ever, so tiny in fact that it's a 3+1 seater. Because Volkswagen largely eliminated the E-Up's dashboard, the front passenger seat is about five inches forward of the driver's seat, increasing the leg room for that person seated directly behind the passenger. The person seated behind the driver, well, he's out of luck. But in a pinch you can carry around a fourth passenger.
There's a 1.4 square meter solar panel on the roof that adds power to the E-Up!'s electrical system. Not enough power? Flip down the solar cell covered sun visors and voila! -- you have 1.7-meters of solar power. That power in turn spins a electric motor that makes 155 lb-ft of torque at zero rpm. This can move the E-Up! from a standstill to 60 mph in just over eleven seconds. News flash: the E-Up! is not a Lamborghini. Still, if like Volkswagen is predicting, E-Up!s (or is that E-Ups!?) will spend most of their time in the city then who cares? Future E-Up! owners, we guess. Full details in the press release below the fold.
The 135 km/h fast 3+1 seater is driven by an electric motor with a peak power output of 60 kW (continuous power: 40 kW). The motor of the front-wheel drive car, which is mounted in front, develops a maximum torque of 210 Newton-meters right from rest. The driver activates forward or reverse gear via a rotary knob in the centre console. The fact that the Volkswagen E-Up! Concept will also quite clearly offer driving enjoyment is demonstrated by a look at the car’s classic 0 to 100-km/h sprint time: 11.3 seconds. The Volkswagen E-Up! Concept develops even greater responsiveness in the intermediate sprint from 0 to 50 km/h in city driving: 3.5 seconds. This dynamic performance is based first on the electric motor’s excellent torque characteristic and second on the low kerb weight of the Volkswagen E-Up! Concept, which is just 1,085 kilograms.
Lithium-ion battery: The car’s low weight is quite astounding, given the fact that 240 kilograms are taken up by the lithium-ion battery. The implemented battery’s energy capacity of 18 kilowatt-hours (kWh) enables driving distances of up to 130 kilometres, depending on driving style – enough for the city and the drives of most commuters. The Volkswagen E-Up! Concept will be “refueled” in the garage at home, in a parking structure or on the road at one of the future municipal recharging stations that will be enabled by chip card. Depending on the available charging infrastructure and the battery’s momentary charge state, the storage battery could be charged to up to 80 percent of its total capacity within an hour.
If the batteries are recharged in a home garage, for example, by plugging it into a 230-Volt household outlet, this would take a maximum of five hours. Generally, off-peak night-time electric rates are very inexpensive. So refueled at night the Volkswagen E-Up! Concept could be driven 100 kilometres for just two Euros in electricity costs (about 14 Euro cents / kWh).
The batteries themselves are housed in the underbody of the Volkswagen E-Up! Concept To optimally distribute the weight of the battery system, it is housed in a special, crash-protected tray in the underbody frame. Air cooling ensures a constant heat balance within the batteries. The fans and heat exchangers needed for this are housed in the front section of the underbody.
Source : www.automild.com
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