The VW e-Up is history – this time probably for good

VW has apparently discontinued the production of its small Up, which is also offered with an electric drive. That means the tiny VW has been discontinued earlier than initially announced - and will leave a gap in the VW model range for several years.

volkswagen-e-up-modelljahr-2020-08-min — Image: Volkswagen

According to the report by Autocar, the last Up has rolled off the production line at the Slovakian plant in Bratislava. That means that production has ended much earlier than previously planned. In May 2022, Hildegard Wortmann, then Group Sales Director, stated that the electric variant e-Up would continue to be built until the end of 2025. The plan was that the series version of the ID.2 could then seamlessly take over as a small electric car.

The e-Up was a popular fleet model in Germany – not only due to the meanwhile very lavish subsidies. With the environmental bonus, including the innovation incentive introduced during the Corona period and the VAT temporarily reduced to 16 per cent, the e-Up was sometimes available for less than 12,000 euros in Germany.

VW had imposed a “temporary” order freeze for the e-Up in September 2020. After demand increased, the Wolfsburg-based company took the e-small car out of the range. The manufacturer only reopened the order books in February 2022. Two months later, however, the small electric vehicle, for which there are hardly any alternatives in the segment, was sold out again.

With the presumed production stop for the Up – Volkswagen has yet to confirm the Autocar report – the Polo is the smallest model built by VW. And that is likely to remain the case for quite some time. A subcompact car below the electric Polo’s successor, the ID.2 (planned for 2025), that could succeed the Up or e-Up is reportedly not planned until 2026 or 2027.

Update 11 October 2023
One day after breaking the news, VW officially confirmed the end for the Up. “Production of the Up and the e-Up at the Volkswagen plant in Bratislava will come to an end in the fourth quarter,” said a VW spokesperson. He added that they had already closed the order books in Germany.

Brand boss Thomas Schäfer added the discontinuation of the model was also due to rules for cybersecurity in new cars, which will apply from mid-2024. That is why the Up is being phased out. “Otherwise we would have to integrate a completely new electronics architecture. That would simply be too expensive,” Schäfer told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

autocar.co.uk, autocar.co.uk (update)