Volkswagen’s tiny city car, briefly offered in Australia, bows out of production after 12 years.
The Volkswagen Up has been phased out of production, 12 years after it launched, leaving the Polo as the smallest model in the German firm’s line-up.
In an official statement supplied to our partner Autocar, the brand said: “Production of the Up and the e-Up at the Volkswagen plant in Bratislava will come to an end in the fourth quarter. Therefore individual configuration of the vehicle (on the UK and German websites) will no longer be possible. Customers can still contact their local Volkswagen retailer for information about pre-configured cars remaining in stock.”
The Up first went on sale in 2011 as the successor to the Volkswagen Fox. It was one of the cheapest cars on sale but was phased out of Australia in 2015 due to slow sales.
It has been offered with a variety of powertrains over its 12-year production run. Back at launch, it could be selected with a 1.0-litre three-cylinder petrol engine producing either 45kW or 55kW. A facelift in 2016 brought more power with the introduction of a turbocharged variant producing 65kW.
The electric Volkswagen e-Up was introduced in 2014 with an 18.7kWh battery that gave 160km driving range, and a larger 32.2kWh battery was offered from 2019 with 260km of range.
The decision to axe the tiny Up comes nine months after the retirement of the hot Volkswagen Up GTI from sale. The GTI arrived in 2018 with 85kW, a sportier design and a six-speed manual transmission.
It was removed from sale in January this year. Volkswagen claimed this was a temporary move, due to demand outstripping supply, but it was never put back on sale.
The Up was part of the Volkswagen Group’s New Small Family (NSF) vehicle series; the Seat Mii was on sale until 2020 and the Skoda Citigo until 2021.
The Volkswagen Polo is now the smallest car that Wolfsburg offers. Last year, though, CEO Thomas Schäfer hinted that the Polo could be removed from the line-up in the coming years, due to Euro 7 regulations, eventually being replaced by a small electric offering in the form of the ID 2.
The Up will be more directly replaced by an ultra-compact electric city car known as the Volkswagen ID 1, which is set to launch within the next five years.