Volkswagen Up in the firing line as brand seeks to boost profits and lower emissions ~ station of gear

John McIlroy 2017-09-12 13:00

Big changes could be afoot for the VW Up in next generation guise as the brand seeks to get more from the tough city car sector

Volkswagen up! - long termer first report front

Rising costs could force Volkswagen to rethink the future of its Up city car - at least for European buyers, the company’s boss has conceded.

The Up is built alongside its sister vehicles, the SEAT Mii and Skoda Citigo - but the project is said to have fallen short of VW’s own internal profit targets. Now VW brand boss Herbert Diess has admitted to Auto Express that the next generation up could be in line for some radical changes.

• Frankfurt Motor Show 2017 news

When asked if the latest small VW platform, MQB A0, could shrink further than the newly launched Polo to support a next generation of Up!, Diess said, “It would be very hard for that. In a way, that’s why the new Polo is a little bigger - because of the crash structure and the dimensions of the A0 platform. So another city car would have to probably stay with PQ12 [the existing Up chassis architecture].

“In some regions, cars like the Up are working vey well. But there comes a point where it gets hard for this type of cars to really help with a big contribution to our CO2 obligations [beating an EU-set target across the range]. There’s a ratio of profit contribution to the company compared with CO2. And making any further gains on that side is expensive - in a car where price is obviously really important. It doesn’t take much of an increase before you are beginning to cross over with Polo prices anyway. It’s difficult.”

Diess declined to state that VW would not develop a successor to the Up, but he said, “We are considering what to offer in Europe.”

What do you think VW should do with the Up? Let us know in the comments...

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