Last week Volkswagen lit up the Frankfurt Motor Show with a series of six advanced-tech Up! pre-production and concept models.

The Up! microcar is meant to be frugal and small, but no one said it has to be boring or uninspired.

Following are briefs on the production cars, plus a couple of way-out models we can only hope VW will change up its plans and decide to build.

The Eco Up! CNG is scheduled for production first among the Up! family of cars in 2012. It is a three-cylinder hybrid that runs on natural gas. It features stop/start technology and regenerative braking.

The E-Up! is – you guessed it – the all-electric version. It feeds 80 horsepower and 155 pound-feet of torque through a single-speed transmission. Its estimated range is 81 miles from a battery pack concealed beneath the floor. Launch date in Europe is in 2013.

The Up! GT is turbocharged for a 25-horsepower increase totaling 100 horsepower and 111 pound-feet of torque. Daytime running lights, roof spoiler, 17-inch wheels and chrome exhaust accents jazz up the sporting pretensions of this little car.

The Up! Azzurra concept is a five-door version styled in a more utilitarian mode. With chunky tires, raised ride height, door sills, fender flares and more burley looking trim, it may not be ready for Baja, but it does look more ready for rougher roads, perhaps.

Inspired by VW-based dune buggies from decades past – and those that are still trolling around today – the Buggy Up! concept looks like too much fun, and we can only hope they’ll produce it. Among its features are removable speakers, an iPod dock, and waterproof interior complete with water drains in the seat shell and floor.

Another wild concept that may never make it to production is this all-electric Azzurra Sailing Team Up! designed by Giorgetto Guigaro. Like the Buggy, this one has a sort of aquatic theme too, but more of a nautical nature. The waterproof interior includes richly finished mahogany and maple wood. The seats are white and blue leather. Chrome and bright work add to the effect.

AutoGuide

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Now, according to a pair of recent reports by Autocar, two of those vehicles are headed to market: the first is the Up! Blue-e-motion Hybrid; the other a future incarnation of the VW Golf scheduled for release in, ahem, 2020.

The VW Up! Hybrid doesn’t yet have a firm timetable but is supposedly headed for Europe sometime in the next few years. The vehicle could get 95 mpg under the European test cycle—equivalent to about 79 mpg in the United States—which is outstanding, even for a small city car.

To achieve this fuel economy, Autocar says that VW will team a 0.8-liter twin-cylinder turbodiesel engine capable of 47 hp with a battery-powered electric motor, which can add up to 26 additional horsepower into the mix as needed. The Up! will share an aluminum engine block and a variety of other fuel and weight-saving features developed in common with the XL1, but likely won’t have an electric-only capability. (Of course, a lot could change between now and a possible release date.) The car will instead use its considerably-smaller battery pack to assist with acceleration, as well as power Volkswagen’s new “pulse starting” stop-start system.

Unfortunately, VW doesn’t plan to sell the Up! Hybrid in the United States, where the appetite for city cars is considered is weak, and VW expects to have relatively little difficultly keeping pace with fuel economy requirements over the next few years.

Although 79-mpg fuel economy may not be enough to motivate most Americans to purchase a city car, the prospect of getting 83 mpg in a car that is already popular here, could be considerably more attractive. Autocar says the 2020 VW Golf will get 100 mpg in Europe—83 mpg in the U.S.—just in time to help Volkswagen meet tough new increases in EU emissions standards.

In 2020, carmakers in Europe will be forced limit the average emissions from their lineups to 95 g/km. For some perspective, the current Toyota Prius model generates 104 g/km, while the forthcoming Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid will pollute at a rate of 76 g/km. The 2020 Golf is targeted for just 75 g/km—without the aid of a plug.

The car could be two model revisions away—with VW currently on the MK6 iteration of the Golf. The XL1-inspired model will likely be released as part of the MK8 platform. By then, VW is hoping that costs of components like carbon fiber bodies and lightweight alloy engine parts will go down, making the world’s first mass-market 100-mpg hybrid price-competitive with other non-plug-ins getting half of its fuel economy. We’ll continue to monitor the L1 project and its potential hybrid offshoots.

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When the up! showed up at auto shows in 2007, the micro-car was used as a counterpoint to the company’s clean diesels (on the way at the time). Here was VW’s chance to talk about a small car that could get close to 80 mpg. The vision of a better microcar—with a sleeker design, better handling and higher fuel efficiency than the Smart ForTwo—was enhanced with the proposal that there would be an array of up! variants, including a short-wheelbase 3-door hatchback and a long wheelbase 5-door hatchback—as well as a sedan, convertible and crossover. The concept 3-door Volkswagen up! was 135 inches long, while the 4-door variant was 141.7 inches. There was also talk of gas, diesel and fuel cell powertrain options.

By the time the up! hit the Los Angeles auto show later in 2007, it had become the “space up! blue,” a mini minivan measuring 145 inches long, and boasting interior space comparable to a much larger vehicle. It was presented as an all-electric vehicle capable of a 65-mile range, or a fuel cell microvan with 220 miles of driving, with help from a rooftop solar panel.

Right around that time, UK’s Autocar awarded the up! as the concept car of the year. Autocar editor Charles Hallett said the up! was “a brilliant concept car, but importantly a concept car that will become a reality.” Car and Driver said it was certainly heading to the United States.

Moving Target

The car reemerged—transformed into an electric car and re-named the e-up!—for the 2009 Frankfurt auto show. The rumored production schedule for the electric up! is around 2013. The e-up! takes the form of a 10.5 foot minicar that seats four—three in front and one in back. Top speed is less than 85 miles per hour, with a 0-60 mph pace of about 11 seconds. The e-up! weighs about 2,400 pounds—with more than 500 pounds coming from the 18 kWh battery pack that can deliver about 80 miles of range from a single charge. The driver activates forward or reverse gear via a rotary knob in the center console.

Automotive News reported that a slightly larger version was being considered for the US market, sometime after a European introduction.

VW suggested that the E-up! could be the “Beetle for the 21st Century,” the same reference it had made from the earliest concept version two years earlier. The VW logo on the V-shaped engine bonnet of the e-up! is more than just an homage to the Beetle. Hidden behind the folding logo is the integrated port for charging the batteries. The concept car has a touch-screen interface that monitors battery state of charge, provides traffic data, and locates available charging stations.

A Game of One (More) Upmanship

Vw up! lite

A couple of months later, the up! showed up at the 2009 Los Angeles auto show, this time as the “up! lite.” This version of the up! combines a lightweight aluminum body, tiny 0.8-liter turbo-diesel engine, electric motor and 7-speed direct shift gearbox to produce a small sporty diesel-hybrid capable of nearly 100 miles to the gallon, according to Volkswagen. VW calls it “the world’s most environmentally friendly four-seat car.”

So folks, take your pick of which up! concept you like the best. Some form of one of them could go into production, if VW delivers on its promise to introduce a “new small family” microcar sometime around 2011.

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