Up! Lite, VW’s Latest Low-calorie Car Wonder

January 11, 2010 -- Filed under Technology, alternative fuel by Stephan

My green soul recently got all excited when Volkswagen announced that the most environmentally friendly car in the world is expected to hit the streets in 2010. I’m referring to my blog, The Future is Now with 100 km on 1L of fuel!,  in which I presented Volkswagen’s “L1” (a name alluding to 1 litre of gas per 100 km), a city car for two featuring a tandem seat. I got just as excited when I learned about the latest jewel in VW’s green-car family, unveiled on December 4 at the Los Angeles Auto Show: I’m of course referring to the brand new VW Up! Lite. Despite its curious name – it sounds like a brand of low-fat ice cream – this new car has instantly become the greenest four-passenger car in the world!

The most environmentally friendly four-seater yet!

And a “four-seater” it truly is – the Up! Lite is a spacious hatchback where the seat release slides and pitches the seats forward for easy entry and exit, making it an option to take even “Omi” to the supermarket! (quick lesson in German: “Omi” is how Germans affectionately call their grandmothers). While you could certainly get some brownie points for driving Omi to the supermarket, the futuristic-looking Volkswagen Up! Lite is probably better suited for impressing your date when picking her up from Yoga class or inviting her out for an ecologically sustainable drive to the next vegan-eco-peace Raw Food Festival.

You asked for tech specs?

Big announcements call for big brass, so Volkswagen sent its very own R&D chief Ulrich Hackenberg to L.A. this year to present the good news in person. Here’s a closer look at what that good news is. First, some technical info: the Up! Lite comes packaged with a 51-horsepower 0.8-litre 2-cylinder TDI turbodiesel engine, a 10-kilowatt electric motor, a 7-speed version of VW’s slick Direct Shift Gearbox as well as top aerodynamics (Cd value: 0.237). Combine the electric motor with the TDI engine and there’s 65 horsepower to move the vehicle, which weighs just 695 kilograms – or 250 bags of eco-certified apples. Add to that some planned hybrid tricks such as regenerative braking, and the Up! Lite only consumes 3.36 litres/100 km !

Space included

The impressive feather-weight of the Up! Lite is achieved via a mix of aluminum, lightweight steel and carbon fibre: steel where the structure needs to be tough (the centre tunnel and door sills); aluminum where strength is rather optional (the floor), and carbon fibre in a few selected areas (such as the roof). Hackenberg’s team has done some real innovation here! Their creation can even haul 30 cubic feet of stuff – certainly more than enough to drive Junior to hockey training, with equipment and cheering pals included.
While some seem to recognize that the Up! Light bears an astonishing resemblance to the Volvo C30, it’s really more of a four-seat follow-up to the two-seat L1 car displayed at the Frankfurt auto show last fall.

Sources:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com

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