If that isn’t enough to help you save “fuel”, you can call upon the transmission’s “gears” (it actually has a single-speed gearbox) to help, with its varying levels of regenerative braking aggressiveness.
In its default drive mode of D, regenerative braking (to recover kinetic energy normally wasted under braking) only occurs when you step on the brakes. But in the other “gears” (namely, D1, D2, D3 and B in ascending levels of strength), regenerative braking happens when lifting off the throttle as well.
That doesn’t sound like much, but in the more aggressive modes (D2, D3 and B), the brake lights come on whenever regenerative braking occurs, with a sensation akin to strong engine braking.
Driving the E-Up, then, takes a little getting used to, although I managed to get the hang of it after just 15 minutes or so. Once that was taken care of, I found the confidence to punt it around bends, thanks to its balanced weight distribution and low centre of gravity afforded by the centrally situated battery pack.
And thanks to the instantaneous torque on offer, the E-Up makes getting ahead of other cars at the lights a cinch. Although Volkswagen is claiming a century sprint timing of 12.4 seconds, it felt far zippier than that in my experience.
However, not too long after that, you’ll have come up against its electronically limited top speed of 130km/h. That’s a tad low if you ask me, as I achieved it with absolute ease during a short blast with the E-Up down the autobahn.
When it comes to giving the E-Up a “fill-up”, its batteries can be topped up via a special DC power supply station (bringing its batteries to 80 per cent battery capacity in 30 minutes). If a regular 230V household socket is used, charging it up takes nine hours.
However, Volkswagen is offering E-Up owners the option of fitting a special wall box to their homes that reduces that time to six hours. However, even if you do live in a place where an electrical mains is just a short distance from your car (that is, landed property), the E-Up is likely to be a fairly expensive proposition.
The upshot is it’ll cost less than a conventionally powered car to run, so if you have the means to buy it and more importantly, the means to charge it, you just might want to take Volkswagen “Up” on its first foray into EVs.
2013 Volkswagen E-Up
ENGINE Permanent synchronous motor
MAX POWER 82bhp
MAX TORQUE 210Nm
GEARBOX Single-speed
0-100KM/H 12.4 seconds
TOP SPEED 130km/h (governed)
CONSUMPTION 11.7kWh/100km (combined)
CO2 EMISSION 0g/km
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