Volkswagen displayed its new concept car the Twin Up! at the Tokyo Motor Show. The carmaker has put in the diesel hybrid powertrain from the two-seater XL1 in the Up! city car.
The four-door Twin Up! concept car has all its exteriors based on the Volkswagen Up! city car. The sparkling white car with blue glass flakes displayed at the Tokyo Motor Show also has many changes to the interior. Leather upholstery is colour-coordinated with the ceramic colour given to the interiors and the centre panels get reflective strips. The instrumentation on the concept Twin Up! including the status display, user-controls and climate control features all are digital, differentiating it from the Up!. The lighting and display changes colours when switched from hybrid to electric mode or vice versa. It brags about a lot more features like an AMOLED display touch screen for the infotainment system and many other customisable control functions.
This year Volkswagen had shown us one of the world's most fuel-efficient production car, the XL1. This two-seater car with a carbon-fibre body and chassis is being produced for a limited number of units. It boasts of outstanding fuel efficiency with the addition of the electric motor to the car. Now, the carmaker has applied this combination to its high-volume production car the Up! and termed it as the Twin Up!.
The Twin Up!, as the name suggests, is powered by a 803cc turbodiesel engine in series with a 27kW electric motor. Apart from the electric motor and diesel engine set-up borrowed from the XL1, the Twin Up! also gets the DSG dual-clutch seven-speed automatic transmission. Volkswagen has announced that the car will deliver 256.8 mpg and CO2 emissions of just 27 g/km.
Volkswagen also claims the Twin Up! to have a compact hybrid system, delivering good driving performance with maximum efficiency and also keeping the emission levels low.
