The "New Small Family" from Volkswagen is gaining speed on its journey to the future. Just six weeks after the world premiere of the Volkswagen up! Concept - the two-door city specialist - Europe's largest automobile producer is now introducing the second member of the "New Small Family" at the Tokyo Motor Show: The space up! Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, Head of Technical Development. On just 3.68 meters length and 1.63 meters width, it offers the space of a considerably larger vehicle. The clever space concept of the space up! The environmentallyfriendly gasoline, diesel and electric powertrains of the future up! Beetle and the Bulli (Microbus) of the past. A brief comparison: The space up! 23 centimeters longer than the up! IAA in Frankfurt; accordingly, its wheelbase is also larger (2.56 meter). At 1.54 meter, the van exhibits a height gain of four centimeters. In contrast to the two-door up! And in actuality there are even six.
That is because the van concept car does not have a classic tailgate, but instead a two-part rear door. Hidden behind this door are 220 to 1,005 liters of cargo space, four seat positions that are multivariable in design, and an exceptionally innovative cockpit concept. Numerous functions are controlled via a touchscreen with 3D graphics and proximity sensors. Volkswagen is introducing the space up! IAA in Germany and the space up! Japan are unified by a common design philosophy. The cars are characterized by a simple, clear language of forms. The designers consciously omitted any superfluous gimmicks. Here they extend far into the fender, and this also affects the side profile. Side profile: On its sides, the concept car - like the "Bulli" in earlier days - exhibits a long extended window section and a clearly distinctive, powerful C-pillar whose form is typical of Volkswagen. The A-pillar is positioned far forward. The space between the A and C pillars is spanned by the line of butterf ly doors with opposing hinges. Both the front and rear doors are opened by door handles at the height of the B pillars.
Since they open in opposition, in the style of the legendary Samba bus, and extend across nearly the entire space between the wheel housings - i.e. the entire sill length - all four seating positions are exceptionally convenient to access. A key concept here is wheel housings: Hidden under them are the self-confident and large 18-inch wheels with size 165/50 tires. Distinctive in this area are the short front and rear overhangs. The front overhang, from the axle hub to the outer skin of the bumper measures just 53 centimeters; in the rear it is 59 centimeters. The result: Crisp proportions. Rear end: Also unmistakable are the design features of the rear end. Take the example of the rear door: It fills out practically the entire car area above the bumper. Similar to the smaller up! 1/3 to 2/3 here - consists of a transparent material. Integrated beneath it are the taillights.
Fully opened, the door offers a cargo width of 101 centimeters. The bumper itself was designed to match its counterpart at the front end. Thanks to the wide track width of 1.42 meters the outer edges of the wheels are in line with the wheel housings. The effect is that the entire vehicle width of 1.63 meters seems to consist of axles plus tires and wheels. Meanwhile, the only details that boldly jump outside of the vehicle width are the round-shaped outside mirrors, like the ones on the up! In the rear, a bench seat is implemented with two integrated child seats. To convert them from adult to child seats, the seating surfaces are simply folded over, and two shoulder supports are folded out on each side. Finished. But not only will children travel comfortably in a production version of the concept car. The reason: The cushions of the four seats - for driver, front and rear passengers - consist of an airf low foam that automatically adapts to individual anatomies.
