What We Know About the 2012 Volkswagen Up
There
wasn't much doubt that Volkswagen's 2007 up! trio of small-car concepts
would appear in driveways around the world. The only questions were
when, which countries, and with what changes. Now we have some
well-informed answers that give a pretty clear picture of these
challengers to the much-ballyhooed Smart ForTwo and Toyota's upcoming
iQ minicar. In brief, VW looks to be planning cheap-chic urban
runabouts that promise low emissions, high mpg, and a perky persona
recalling the air-cooled Beetle of old. Moreover, there's a good chance
the Up will come to America, though it wasn't conceived with the U.S.
as a top priority.
The
2012 Volkswagen Up reportedly starts production sometime in 2011, a
year later than planned. The delay stems from a second-thoughts
decision to remake the rear-engine/rear-drive concept into a
front-engine/front-drive design. This change saves huge sums in
development costs and tooling expenses--nearly $1.8 billion, according
to Britain's CAR magazine--which is vital for a car aimed chiefly at
emerging markets in Europe, South America, and India. Moving the
powertrain from back to front also allows the Up to share more
componentry and production facilities with larger VW cars, all of which
are front-drive. No word yet on production locales, but Volkswagen can
tap factories in several lower-wage countries to meet price points and
a global sales target of a cool half-million units per year.
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