VW e-Up short review and range tests 

We have more than 100 of these in Sofia, Bulgaria. They are part of the fleet of an electric car sharing company called Spark. It costs 0.33 Bulgarian Lev per minute (less than 0.17 euro). It is cheaper than a taxi. You can also rent it for 24 hours for about 29 euro. VW e-UP is super easy to drive and it is a great car for the city.

I was at Nebbenes at the same time as you! I looked over and though to myself "who's that crazy guy in a eUp driving long distances, probs Bjørn lol." Little did I know ;/

I managed to get 160 km in winter in ECO+ mode when driving in the city at 5,5 °C outside temperature. I drove the battery to 0%. Then on the CCS charger I charged 14,8 kWh to 100% in 32 minutes. 80% was in 18 minutes (11,82 kWh). The GOM (guess-o-meter) shows usually 144 km when fully charged, once it showed 151 km.

Doesn't EVEN have soft close doors. Haha, made my day...

Hei Bjørn! My parents own an E-up! (the better looking pre facelift-version) from 2013. They (and me) have now driven over 100 000 kms in it, and it has been a great car for us. It is in my opinion the best small city car that you could buy. They are quite reliable, and the drivetrain is very solid. Fun to drive as well. This summer, In drove it from Kragerø to Trondheim, a distance of 700km. (It took 10 charge stops and 13 hours :P ) I got an average of around 11 kwh/km on that long trip. I would say in city speeds and up to 80 you can get it below 11 as well. Problem is that the heater uses a lot of power, so comfortable winter driving really impacts the range. Luckily, the average CCS charging speed is higher than all other cheap EV's at the moment (40kws, but consistently). I have frequently driven it on longer trips around 300 kms earlier with no problems. If it had around 300km of range, it would be perfect in my eyes. It is like the modern EV equivalent of a 2CV or a Fiat Panda. A simple, no nonsense, efficient car with fun handling.

Great review as usual! Also I must say I love your driving Bjørn, using indicators (also in the roundabout) and using the right lane when possible!

energy records and info are detailed, accurate and informative. your efforts shall be credited. thank you

I drive an EcoUp! and the car is very practical because it is shaped like a box. We managed to do several road trips with four people an luggage and because it takes CNG it is very cheap to drive.

The updated version of this car should arrive next year with double the battery size and lower price. The Skoda Citygo version should cost "up to" EUR 20000. Knowing VW, it's hard to believe.

We own a pre facelift e-Up and I can confirm the results to be similar, in winter the range @ 130km/h is about 80km, in summer about 110km. Best is to drive in Eco mode and in B (max regen). If you floor it it will not limit your power even in eco mode unless you are below 8km of range left, it will then slow down and squeeze a surprising amount of left over juice out of the battery making the range it show it has left relatively reliable for you to make it to a charger. Summer or winter never noticed any limitation on "overheating" even when joyriding my own car :D Driving 60km to work I would have to plug it in on a slow charger twice a day, with my Model S 85D I am now down to one slow charge session once every 3 days.

I just love it and want to have it soooooo bad....

Absolutely in agreement, small city car without luxury; but considering that the new 2020 version has a range of about 250km and after incentives it costs about 17k EUR... I see it as a clear winner for the low-price market. Also, the UP! was designed from the beginning to fit bot ICE and EV powertrains.

Drive south and go on holliday near the RIMAC facrory to visit it, maybe visit KREISEL too.

The TBTP is really really interesting

Nice :) Thanks for testing e-up :) In Greece I am getting much better consumtion numbers in city drive. We drive as you say tipical e-up drive always at eco+ mode like hypermiling hehehe and we manage yearly average 10.7kwh/100km!

I drove this car a few times. I think it is a good car for only city use, but if you regularly want to do anything more than just city driving it is not that good.

In winter I've experienced similar results, but when its 10 - 15 degrees or more I manage around 130 - 140km city/outside of city 90km/h

I like the analog gauges, they are easy to read and I guess they are not cheaper than a screen of a similar size. As for infotainment it would be great if there was Android Auto / Apple car play. support.

It looks to be a rather neat "to work" car, small and nimble for shorter drives

Bjorn.... should you worry about battery cooling when the outside temperature was around -4C? We in Malaysia and Thailand usually drive around with the ambient temperature in the region of 30C. Another useful video, Bjorn.

Pretty blue color. I remember you reviewing this. It's awkward but a interesting car. So tiny.

Ehi Man!! Thanks …Thanks a lot for this kind of video. Oh first sorry for my English. I'm Italian! I'm looking forward to get a new little city car and specially I was looking for this "Up" and a consideration …I'd like to be there in cold Oslo!!!

Hi Björn. You mebtioned Spain.. feel free to come to Barcelona.. I have a sunny place for you and and EV to do some test. . have fun !

ERR 39 on a Tritium Veefil RT, is the 3 phase power is not detected.

I actually rent it this car couple times in Bratislava, Slovakia and in winter its like this, but in spring, summer and fall I have average consumption around 13,5 KWH when going around 90km/h and using eco mode. So really 130 - 140 km is really possible in this car when its not too cold.

Up! was designed as both EV and fossil fuel car. Bat since the car is so small, the battery is small as well. To be fare petrol tank in fossil version is only 30L. But it had full size spare wheel though. I used to drive petrol version of it. Bought it £8700 brand new. Electric one is £22000 right now.

E-up has got same sanyo/panasonic cells as 24 e-golf, but connected 102s2p instead (golf 88s3p). And drivetrain is similar to golf, but with shorter stator/rotor. Thank you for the review. ;)

Hello Bjorn, do you use any app for monitoring your e-up? Can you check battery healt using obd? Is it possible to manage desired battery lvl when charging and to set the ac/heater to work on set time? Thanks

1260 kg (lets say 1180 without driver) is heavy as a rock for this pocket car, i think the petrol version is around 840. As a city car it makes perfect sense with 100 km range, now you can buy these used from 12K euros.

As I see it this is a good option when you are considering buying a cheap second hand EV vs a new e-UP for city driving use since this should have the same range vs a 2012 Leaf for example.

I kind of like the simplicity. Nothing wrong for us poor folks who eat from garbage cans and can only afford basic ev.

Nice car, I guess, and cheap. Driving an electric car for some distance seems like a hassle though. You have to plan ahead and wait a lot for charging. I think I'd rather take the train or a bus. For short rides to and from home, it's fine. Great video.

E dash up exclamation point.

Bjorn, is there any chance you could include mpkwh in your calculations please?

Why do you Bjon laugh at manual handbrake, thats the best thing for handling car in winter, cant do it with small gage they make now, you should learn to love it,! ;)

Thanks for the winter test with -2°C. The car seems to do fine. What I would like to know is how such a car would behave in an mountainous area. Do you think the recuperation while going down would neutralize - at least a bit - the higher consumption while going uphill?? I would appreciate your comment on this.

soft doors on vw eup? What is your problem?

Could you completely rip out the back seats for extra cargo space?

Sadly, the new one seems to charge slower (can't hold 40 kW as long) even though it has a bigger battery.

I think cheap plastic covering that metal on the doors would not make it feel any more premium. Nice color on that car!

Does the new e-Up have battery cooling?

Error 39 - 480V 3 phase supply exceeded limits: 528V or 65Hz | Short glitch in power OR 3 phase power is lost OR Internal RCD tripped OR Internal breaker tripper | Return plug to charger, remote charger reset, if this clears the error it must have been only a short glitch that caused the error, if it does not clear please refer the issue to Tritium. ozleaf.proboards.com/thread/805/tritium-veefil-charger-common-field

Error 39, are they trying to match Blizzard's Diablo 3 Error 37? :)

Btw, Bjorn, could you please test the different regen modes? There are 4 modes selectable with the "gearbox" lever.

This would be an optimal car for me, to going to the workplace then home. 30-35km a day.

Please search a place with snow and perform some cheap-ev handbrake turn, this would be fantastic

I really have issues with Volkswagen-group itselv, especially Wolkswagen and Audi. But they do make some brilliant products even with a gun to the head.

That wouldn’t even get me to work and back!

You have to try Portugal to see the sun. You will be surprise there with electric car fans and Tesla Fans.

You want to go to Spain because has nice and warm weather and I want to go to Norway because it's cold haha

In the Croatian is 6 degrees, come in the summer.

i look forward to new skoda and seat version of this, they have bigger battery and are cheaper so be almost 300km range

Maybe the charging stations should not allow the charger to work unless they park correctly so ignorant owners don't block other people!

Really nice for the city, hope price comes down to 15k.

Great video as always, Bjørn. A question: The «B» shown in the top right corner of the display, doesn’t that indicate that you have pulled the gearlever back for max recuperation? And this again means that the car is braking? At least that is the case on my old e-up:) again thanks again for the great content.

4:12 Full battery ? Ja ! Full !

smart fortwo EQ when?

"its very basic in here " says the Tesla owner. I nearly spat my coffee over my keyboard.

Nice car

11:21 very fossil style key:)

Will you race this against the Smart EQ forfour?

Sheeiiiiiiiiit 😂 That was a great video

Only 88km to 100% battery to 15%???

Sunset at 15:43, you're lucky you don't live in Tromsø, the sun sets at on 11:45am November 28th and you don't see it again until January 15th!

He said long trips 😂

New microphone? Audio isn’t as good as usual when you were outside the car

WTF! it's the same price as the Leaf in the UK but way under specced by comparison. O.o

😊👍

Yes,hammer it to croatia

you forgot to turn off side mirror heaters, everybody in vw has them on all the time LoL

1:08 long trips? Yeah right

Manual hand brake!!! Why is it called a handbrake if we're surprised it's manual?

The range is nearly the same as the much cheaper Citroën C-Zero.

how to make a long trip when the car range is 120 khm???

It's a car for the lower end of the market. Not everyone can afford a Tesla.

”Har inte ens soft-close” är du seriös haha? Det är en bil för ca 140000sek egentligen, bara att den är eldriven.. om du inte visste:)

Can you test fiat 500e?

Low number of chargers in Croatia... Would not recomand.

That backup camera is a pointless addition 😆

Bjorn - what’s the cost of this city car?

Why you laugh at manual handbrake?

And what´s the price of this office clerk bum shifter?

This is quite awful considering it goes more or less close to the same range of a I-Miev. And the I-miev is by now almost a decade old...congrats Volkswagen.

You are expecting so much for a litle car

From just £25,640.00...bargain! You'd buy this over a Zoe ZE40 because?....

Wow... I am stunned. The efficiency is so poor for such a small car. These fossil conversions to electric are so not optimized. Today I drove 250 miles in 2 to 6 C weather up and down mountains with 5 ppl, heater to 20C and still averaged 330 Wh/mi in Model 3 LR RWD.

you can't roll down the rear windows. no arm rest for driver. this is a joke. it is even cheaper than the versions we have in brazil, that are strip down to the bones

You cant even go on long trips 90km range

I hope that next year's Škoda e-Citigo will be better than..... well, ummm..... this uhhh..... CHEAP-ASS LOW-RANGE THING.

That should be named ePolo.

Nothing wrong with conventional.

100 Km range? Herbert Diess is in trouble..

nissan horrible..up! great car

Ahhh VW. The company that charges you 625€ for a DC chargeport extra on an EV. Ridiculous.

$37,000 USD and it has key start, cheap interior and doesn't even have digital speedometer. Pay $10k more you got yourself a nice SUV.

A mati

So not a fan of VW and their antiquated displays. I guess if the price is right, but they just seem so far behind the curve of EVs right now.

Quick math...BUM!

Sorry to say, but what a piece of crap in today's market. I would say it's a better deal to just get a used leaf for next to nothing. if anyone is considering buying this car, just save up a couple of months and get something that has longer range.

Horrible little car but honestly most people dont drive more than 60km per day so it's a good little cheap EV