The up!
World premiere: Volkswagen up! concept car with rear engine
Multivariable: City specialist offers more space, more variability and more fun
Key Aspects
Wolfsburg, September 2007. There are cars that endure for all
times. They are icons of their type, masterpieces of craftsmanship
and technology; they put ideas into motion, make progress
tangible and sometimes quite simply make everyday life better,
more practical and enjoyable. Many of these cars carry the
VW logo. “Bug, Beetle, New Beetle”, “T1, Bulli, Samba bus,
California”, “Golf, GTI”. Now Volkswagen is presenting – as a
world premiere at the International Motor Show (IAA) in
Frankfurt – a concept car that once again has the right stuff
needed to move more than just one generation.
It is a small, pure and high-spirited Volkswagen that pays tribute to its
environment. The overall concept is marked by an innovative,
clear, intuitive functionality. The name of the concept car:
up! – a positive name that is a synonym for departure, activity,
dynamics and the future. “For Volkswagen”, says Dr. Ulrich
Hackenberg, Board Member with Responsibility for Technical
Development, “the response of IAA visitors will be a decisive test
to determine whether the concept has the same kind of potential
possessed by the Beetle at one time or by the Golf today.”
Concept
The up! is a city specialist, a car for four persons and all languages,
for the job, the university, the drive to the beach and the excursion
outside the city gates. A small car that shows a lot of size, because
it offers more space than any other car of similar length
(3.45 meters) and width (1.63 meters). Its engine – conceivable
here are all facets of technology that can be sensibly applied – will
run in the rear. And that changes everything: Space, mood and
design.Walter de Silva, Chief Designer of the Volkswagen group,
sums it up like this: “The up! is not a car whose form will become
obsolete within a very brief period of time. It shines in its
cleverness and yet is made with loving care. And so the up! is
a clear and strong statement for future Volkswagen design.”
Furthermore, the team of designers and engineers has envisioned
the up! concept car as the first member of an entire model line;
other facets are entirely conceivable.
Ralf-Gerhard Willner, Director of Concept Development, has
final responsibility for the technical layout of the up! He and
Walter de Silva had already achieved a new balance in the mutual
interaction between form and function at Volkswagen before the
start of the project. “Absolute harmony of the basic technological
concept and the emotional aspects of the design”, note Willner
and de Silva in unison, “can only be achieved in a hard clash
of ideas between engineers and designers. That is the only
way to produce icons.” That is precisely why the up! is not
your run-of-the-mill, small, tightly packed car, but instead is a
clever, innovative whole. Its form is pure. It just had to look
like this, no other look would do. There is nothing superf luous,
and its functionality – and so also its design – speak for
themselves. Simultaneously – and this is typical of Volkswagen –
uncompromisingly attention was given to refining every line and
every surface until we had created a friendly and masterful car.
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Originally Posted by Ferrer
