The E-Up! is a front-drive, city car featuring a 60 kW electric motor powered by lithium-ion batteries.

Volkswagen gives the vehicle’s range at about 80 miles and says it can accelerate from 0 to 31 mph in 3.5 seconds. The car has a reported top speed of 84 mph. The car will be a small, two door hatchback, similar to Volkswagen’s Golf/Rabbit.

When the E-Up! arrives in the U.S. in three-to-four years, it will hope to find buyers in large cities and urban areas of the country. Starting prices for the E-Up! will be at around $10,000 to $11,000 USD.

Volkswagen will jump into the competition with one of the lowest prices electric cars to date. Japanese auto makers are producing EV’s around the $15,000 to 22,000 price range.

According to Automobilemag, the German automaker’s current plans still include the electric variant of the Up! compact car coming to North American shores in 2013.

The e-Golf is propelled by an 85-kilowatt electric motor integrated with a single speed transmission and differential. The motor produces 199 pound-feet of torque from zero rpm which is sufficient to accelerate the Golf to 62 mph in 11.8 seconds. An air cooled 26.5 kilowatt-hour lithium ion battery pack is mounted under the rear seat and cargo floor and center tunnel. VW claims the Golf can go about 93 miles on a charge.

The consumer fleet test will allow Volkswagen to gather real world data before it launches three production EVs in 2013. The first production model with be the Up blue-e-motion city car followed by the next generation Golf blue-e-motion and finally the Jetta blue-e-motion.

Source: AutoBlog