VW received 20,000 e-up! electric car orders, rivaling gas-powered version

Volkswagen claims to have received 20,000 e-up! electric car orders in Germany over the past 3 months – rivaling the demand for its gas-powered version.

Today, the German automaker shared a press release to boast about the demand for the e-up! electric car and the Passat GTE PHEV in Germany.

The latter is not very impressive since we are talking about every seventh Passat customer in Germany opting for the PHEV version.

However, when it comes to the former, the little e-up! (yes, there’s an exclamation point in the name), VW had some impressive data to share.

The e-up! is the electric version of the up! model series and now VW says that every other customer buying an up! model series vehicle in Germany is ordering the electric one.

The automaker claims to have received over 20,000 orders for the e-up! electric car in Germany this year:

“Even before the launch of the new ID.3⁰⁴ this summer, the demand for electric mobility has considerably increased in Germany: already every second order for the up! model series is for the fully electric version, around 20,000 orders have been received. […] Around 20,000 vehicles have been ordered already over the first three months of this year.”

The increased demand comes after VW updated the e-up! for the 2020 model year last year with a much longer range:

“The e-up! generates 61 kW (83 PS) has been launched in November 2019 and represents the new entry-level model to Volkswagen’s electric world. Compared with the predecessor, it offers a significantly increased range (up to 260 km in the WLTP cycle).”

VW attributes the increase in demand in Germany partly to the low cost of the vehicle after incentives in the market:

“The low running costs are the crucial purchasing argument: In Germany, its manufacturer suggested retail price (€21,975) is reduced by an environmental bonus (€6,570, both gross amounts) and the German insurance categories are favourable (liability category: 12, fully comprehensive category: 16). And no charges are incurred for road tax or engine oil changes for the e-up!.”

As we reported last week, the e-up! might not have long to live despite its success since VW says it’s working on entry-level ID.1 electric car that would replace the e-up!.

Electrek’s Take

This is really good news for VW. It’s going to help them reach their emission goals in Europe until the ID.3 is available.

They are just talking about Germany here, but the economics of the new e-up! are likely good in several other European markets.

I would note though that VW is only talking about orders and not deliveries. I doubt that they have the production capacity to deliver on the demand for the e-up! since they have only been planning for real EV volume production with the MEB platform.

Nonetheless, I’m curious to see how many of the new e-up! VW ends up selling this year.