Volkswagen e-Up (2014 – 2023) Review

The Volkswagen e-Up is a pure EV version of its city car, sitting alongside Volkswagen Group alternatives like the Skoda Citigo-e iV and SEAT Mii Electric, as well as alternatives like the Renault Zoe and Nissan Leaf. First introduced in 2014 with an updated version arriving in early 2020, the e-Up remains a city car first and foremost, not capable of the same generous range as conventional cars or more sophisticated EVs. Even so, the combination of sprightly performance, low noise and easy driving style arguably gives it the edge over the petrol Up in the city.

While some manufacturers have decided to build dedicated electric cars - the Nissan Leaf being a case in point - Volkswagen has taken the route of developing models that can be powered by different types of motor. So from its initial design, the Up was always designed to be fitted with an electric powertrain, creating the e-Up. The compact motor provides 82PS and with a single-speed gearbox it's actually the quickest Up in the range.

Original versions of the e-Up from 2014 on were fitted with a 18.7kWh battery, giving a range of approximately 100 miles on a single charge at best. More recently the e-Up was revised and fitted with a 32.3kWh battery, almost twice the capacity of the original.

These later versions have an official range of 159 miles under the tougher WLTP measurement, so the real-world range is much improved. Of course the faster you accelerate the quicker you drain the battery, but there are regenerative braking modes. As all the electric motor's torque is available from zero revs, the e-Up is impressively nippy from a standstill and is similarly strong from around 30mph.

A standard charge takes nine hours from a conventional three-pin socket, but owners are better off getting a wallbox which offers a significantly faster charge of around six hours. All the various cables required come with the car and live in a neat slot in the boot. Unlike rivals like the Renault Zoe, there's no leasing of the battery - it's all part of the final price. The battery itself is modular and has an eight year or 100,000 mile warranty.

The e-Up is considerably more expensive compared to the rest of the Up range but it does come very well equipped as standard with a heated windscreen, DAB radio, climate control, navigation, rear parking sensors and 15-inch alloys. Despite the price hike over the petrol version, it's still one of the cheapest electric cars on sale. 

It will certainly appeal to those who have to travel into the central London congestion charge zone and also makes a lot of sense as a second car. It’s also arguably better to drive in urban environments compared to the petrol Up, even without the congestion charge advantage.

Looking for a second opinon? Why not read heycar's Volkswagen e-Up review.

It has lovely responsive steering which is well weighted but still light for parking and this combined with the nippy performance makes the e-Up huge fun to drive. Ultimately the amount of grip available is relatively modest, but you may be surprised at just how capable it is.

However, as the battery is located in the floor, it means a lower centre of gravity. As a result the e-Up handles and rides just as well as any other Up.

Another plus point is that the additional weight helps the e-Up to ride a little better than the standard car. It’s still a very small car and a short wheelbase means it can be prone to pitching over longer bumps at speed, but the ride quality in town is very good indeed.

If you've not driven an electric car or a hybrid before then moving away in near in silence as you do in the e-Up is quite a novelty. The only accompaniment is a slight whir from the electric motor. But forget for one minute that this is an electric car designed for efficiency and you'll realise that it's actually the quickest Up in the range, accelerating from 0-62mph in just 12.4 seconds.

More crucial for a small car like this designed for urban driving is the 0-37mph time, which is just 4.9 seconds. That's because the 210Nm of torque is available from a standstill up to 2800rpm, so it's rapid away from the lights and ideal for nipping in and out of busy traffic. The e-Up isn't a one trick pony though and the performance continues to impress the faster you go. It's also quick from 30mph and 40mph, with instant throttle response.

On the motorway it will happily keep up with fast flowing traffic and thanks to the low noise levels and impressive refinement it's very relaxing to travel in. It certainly feels like a bigger car than it is with good stability and little wind or road noise. In town the tight turning circle makes it a doddle to slot into small spaces.

The Volkswagen Up has been tested twice by EuroNCAP; once in 2011 when the car was initially launched, and then again in 2019 as the e-Up. In the first test it scored five stars, but in the most recent test it achieved three stars. There are two mitigating factors in respect of the change in score; firstly, EuroNCAP frequently raises the bar, so cars must keep getting safer to achieve a higher score, and secondly the e-Up is substantially heavier than the petrol Up - almost 400kg.

Standard equipment includes driver and passenger front airbags, side airbags covering front and rear seats, seat belt pretensioners and load limiters front and rear and Isofix child seat mounting points. The e-Up also includes ESC, hill hold assist and lane assist all as standard, with tyre pressure monitoring and traffic sign recognition also included. Rear parking sensors and a reversing camera are also welcome additions, standard only on the e-Up.

City cars like the Up are rarely suitable for towing, but as an electric vehicle the e-Up is even less suited to the task and should not be used for towing under any circumstances.

The lithium-ion batteries are neatly integrated into the floor of the Up, just in front of the rear axle, so there's no impact on interior space. The e-Up is the same size as the standard Up at just 3.5 metres long yet it feels far more spacious inside with plenty of legroom and good elbow room. Two adults can fit in the back and it's reasonably comfortable although you wouldn't want to spend too long back there.

The boot is only one-litre smaller than a conventional Up at 250 litres and there's a clever slot where to store all the charging cables, which are kept in a neat bag. You can fold down the back seats for extra space and it's quite a surprise just how much you can fit in the diminutive Up. It also has the double level boot floor but there's no spare wheel or the space for one. Instead there's a semi-circular space where a mobility kit is stored.

The interior design is simple yet attractive and helped by a gloss finish across the dash and on the door tops. The very light colours of the interior in our pictures won't be to everyone's taste - plus it's likely to get marked easily - but it makes a change from the usual drab black.

The new generation e-Up comes with a dedicated phone cradle, DAB radio with six speakers, an auxiliary input and Bluetooth so you can connect your smartphone, while Maps + More is a dedicated app for iOS and Android with TomTom navigation, an eco trainer and audio streaming, all as standard. It’s not quite the same as a fully in-built system you’d get on newer rivals, but it works well enough - and you can always just use the native apps on your phone if you prefer.

The e-Up comes in a single model, effectively separate to the rest of the Up range, and there’s no choice in specification either. The list price is currently £23,555 and at the time of writing the government grant is £3000, for an effective list price of £20,555. To that you can add exterior paint colours, but in terms of options all you can add is a variable boot floor and the shark-skin dash pack.

This compares favourably with the SEAT Mii Electric - essentially the same car, which costs £19,800 including the plug-in grant. Renault’s Zoe is a bigger car and a little more sophisticated too, with a post-plug-in grant price of £26,495, while the Nissan Leaf is similarly-sized to the Zoe and costs from £26,845.

As for used examples, the original e-Up sold in limited numbers but there are a few examples on the used market. A quick search of the classified ads turned up several models of varying ages, including a 2014 car with 25,000 miles for just £11,000.

We also found very late models with low miles for around £17,000 - but we would suggest paying just a little more for the newer 32.3kWh version which is much more usable and is likely to retain its value better in the longer term.

The cheapest new generation e-Up we found had only a 1,000 miles recorded and came in at just under £20,000, a useful saving over the list price for a nearly-new car. We also found two delivery-mileage examples for around £20,000.

A decent electric car should be significantly cheaper than a petrol or diesel equivalent, and the e-Up is no exception. Electric cars tend to be more efficient in town at lower speeds than at a constant speed on a major road, which is the opposite of a petrol or diesel car, making this powertrain ideal for city life.

Happily the e-Up comes with CCS charging as standard, so you can take advantage of high-speed public charge points.

Compared to most versions of the regular Up, the e-Up comes in at the significantly higher insurance bracket of group 10E, but that’s still less than the Up GTI and a few groups lower than the comparable Renault Zoe too. Given the purchase price, insurance premiums are relatively high for a city car, but not for an electric car - with a decent few years of no-claims bonus the e-Up compares favourably with small cars like the Fiesta or Polo.

The e-Up comes in a single standard specification, which makes life easier for all of us, so if you do buy one new then you don’t have much to decide upon. You get plenty of nice toys as standard - climate control, heated seats and windscreen, cruise control, a rear-view camera, nice alloy wheels and smartphone integration. There’s also almost nothing you can add from the options list outside of paint and trim changes. You can add the adjustable boot floor and that’s about it. The same applies to the original version of the e-Up too, so you can buy in confidence knowing that you’ve got a good specification and all the toys you could need.