The battery has a capacity of 5.3kWh and is fully charged after two hours with a three point plug.

The design, based around a light but sturdy aluminum spaceframe, features gullwing style doors and free-standing wheels which makes it both fun to drive and friendly on the environment.

R&D chief Ulrich Hackenberg said: “Nils is anything but a dry-run exercise and is very realistic. Despite its compact dimensions, the concept fulfils all safety requirements for contemporary vehicles.”

Ever looked at a VW Polo and thought, “Hmmm, that thing is just far too large. I wish Volkswagen made something much smaller.” No? Me neither. But if tiny cars are your thing, you’re in luck, as VW has confirmed that new up! (yes, lower case and exclamation mark are part of the model name) will be on sale in Europe by the end of the year.

Gallery and Specs after the jump.

This car is properly small, at just 3.5 metres long, it’s a whole 2 metres shorter than an Audi Q7 or Mercedes S Class, for instance. It is billed as a four seater though, and I must admit looks pretty good as well, immediately recognisable as a four seater.

The up! (typing that exclamation mark is going to get annoying) debuts with two brand new, 3 cylinder petrol engines, developing 44kW and 55kW depending on the model variant you may choose. Fuel economy is exceptional, there’s no hybrid or EV trickery here, just good old fashioned frugal fuel use. VW claims 4.2l/100km on the combined EU cycle (highways and city mixed).

This is the first small car to feature emergency automatic stop, named City Emergency Braking. An additional option, the system is active at under 30km/h and uses a laser to detect imminent collisions. It will bring the car to a complete stop depending on the driver inputs or lack thereof.

The infotainment system is also pretty nifty. The entire system is wirelessly connected to a removable touch screen, which clips onto the dash (see images). The system can be plugged in at home and you can download, wait for it, apps for your car. Yes, the age of the car app is upon us.

There are no prices for the SA market as yet and sadly VW SA has said there are no plans to bring it here, but I will eat my new pair of Levi’s if they don’t, because to be honest with competition from Toyota’s Aygo and the Hyundai i10, they would be terribly silly not to.

Ciro De Siena – OverdriveTV

Instead, they have been reportedly planning do their own special editions. To them, the GTI is creating very good customer response over there and they don’t need special editions to move it.

The GTI Edition 35 is powered by a revised 2.0 liter TFSI petrol engine (a detuned version of the 2.0 liter TFSI unit in the Golf R) that develops 235 PS (173 kW / 232 hp) – a gain of 25 PS over the 211 PS (155 kW / 207 hp) of the standard GTI.

Volkswagen faced several impediments on the way while introducing the model to United States as being offered in Europe. For instance, sports seats did not meet federal safety standard. Further, the front spoiler which VW of America believed was too low for US roads.

However, the variant is available in markets like Germany carrying a price tag of around €30,425.

VW CEO Martin Winterkorn has been quoted as saying that though he doesn’t believe that prevailing hybrid technologies were not set for playing on the roads with IC engine cars, he is “firmly convinced” that plug-in hybrids will be feasible during the next decade.

So that might mean that the company is hopeful of their future pointing at a scene where lithium-sulphur batteries would having three times the energy density of lithium-ion batteries.

Noteworthy will be the fact that upcoming lithium-air batteries, expected in 2025, would have four to five times the current energy density. Let’s wait.

The sport package will be powered by a 2.0 BiTDI diesel engine with 180 PS (132 kW / 178 bhp) coupled to either a 6-speed manual transmission or the 7-speed DSG gearbox.

A gloss black grille with chrome trimming, revised headlights, polished stainless-steel side bars, smoked taillights, new color-coded front bumper with integrated fog lights and a rear roof spoiler make up the Transporter Sportline’s exterior. Adding to these, are the 18-inch Sportline 5-spoke alloys.

Coming to the interiors, the cabin features a cabin with exclusive two-tone leather upholstery and gadgets such as the 7-inch touch-screen with full navigation features and Bluetooth connectivity. It costs you £28,220 for a panel van while £30,100 for a kombi model.

If you were following the massive international launch of the 2012 Beetle you might have noticed that a few news sites published the images before the press embargo of 1pm GMT. Those sites have felt the full wrath of some frightening VW lawyers and retracted their stories.

These then are the first official pictures of the 21st Century Beetle. Some UK sites are claiming an early 2012 release date, so we presume we’re looking at a July-September launch in SA. We’ll keep you posted.

It seems the car is based on the chassis from the Golf 6, but hey, which cars in the VW stable aren’t. Expect a full line up of VW engines, from the little 1.4 litre twincharged unit, all the way to a 2.0 turbo.

The interior looks like every other VW I’ve ever driven, which is no surprise, but at least you’ll be able to spec all the goodies like SatNav and the HDD music system with touch screen.

Ciro De Siena – OverdriveTV

Coming to the rear, the smoked taillights in two sections grab the attention along with dual exhaust tips. The tyres are available with 17” or 18” alloys.

The interior has sport bucket seats with red stitching, a sport flat-bottom steering wheel with red stitching, the GLI logo and aluminum accents. Available in cloth or V-Tex Leatherette the car also features sleek alloy pedals, shifter, dash and door trim.

Luxury features include 6.5″ touch screen premium VIII radio with Bluetooth and iPod connectivity, one-touch up/down power on all four windows, standard multifunction display (for vehicle status, trip, radio and navigation information when equipped). While dual zone climate control, RNS-315 navigation system and keyless entry with pushbutton start are available as options.

The sedan gets the award winning 2.0 L turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine mated to a six-speed manual transmission, producing 200 hp and 207 lb-ft of torque @ 1700 rpm. The new model is comparatively lighter to the old model.

The new Jetta GLI should return 31 mpg highway with the manual and 32 mpg highway with the DSG automatic.

Also provided are Track tuned four-way Independent Performance Suspension, DSG automatic gearbox with steering wheel mounted paddle shifters and four wheel disc brakes with floating red calipers.

XDS cross differential system that debuted on the Volkswagen GTI, that helps prevent inside wheel spin during cornering have also found its way into the Jetta GLI.

ESP, tyre pressure monitoring, VW’s Intelligent Crash Response System, driver and front passenger airbags, side airbags in front and side curtain protection airbags in front and rear.

The car is sold in three models, entry level Jetta GLI at $23,495, GLI Autobahn at $25,545 and the top of the range Jetta GLI Autobahn at $26,445.

The VW Golf has been the largest selling car in Europe for the majority of last 3 decades. The main reason cited for the premature exit of the current model is that it is built on the old PQ35 platform, whereas the new model will feature VW’s new modular transverse architecture or Modular Querbaukasten (MQB) in German.

The new architecture is an inexpensive one by which VW expects double-digit profit percentage and will be used to build up to 3 million vehicles per year. Also, unlike the current PQ35 where only vehicles of different brands using the same structure could be included, the MQB can be stretched to include different new models.

The new Audi A3 will be the first car to implement the MQB in its design and also the first to hit the roads possibly during the summer of 2012, before the new Golf.

Although no exact date has been revealed for the launch of Golf VII, expect the beauty to drive in by early 2013 at least.

(Via WCF)

Volkswagen US boss Jonathan Browning has been quoted as saying that the new SUV will seat seven passengers. The new model’s launch is a part of VW’s plan to increase US sales from last year’s 256,830 to 800,000 by 2018.

Volkswagen is looking at capturing a major share of the American auto market, for this they would have to bring up a whole line-up of cars suited for the US.

The German major has already brought the new Jetta and Passat (cheapened up versions) to the US and also plans to bring in the Polo too. However, the Up! city car or any other pick-ups will come to the US.

Not many details about the SUV are known as of now. We are waiting for the pricing and launch details too.

(Via AutoExpress)

The company believes that building Porsches from North America or China wouldn’t break the tradition since earlier they had given the production of Boxster to Valmet contract manufacturers in Finland.

Porsche is also expected to open a customer centre in China and a test track in Shanghai close to a Formula One track. The company’s dealers in China would be increased from 35 to 85 and then possibly to 100.

It is expected that, during this year itself, Porsche would make a decision on whether to start production from North America or Asia. Porsche might start building their upcoming SUV Cajun in a Volkswagen factory in China.

Apparently the same factory builds the Audi Q5 (SUV). The previous Karmann factory in Osnabrueck, Germany – now acquired by VW – will be used to boost the production of Boxster and Cayman. VW will use the plant to manufacture Golf Cabriolet.

Porsche is merging with VW, making it VW group’s 10^th brand along with the likes of Audi AG, Bentley, Bugatti , Lamborghini, Skoda etc. This happened after VW obtained 49.9% of Porsche Automobil Holding SE’s carmaking unit when Porsche last year failed in a bid to takeover VW.

(Via WCF)