VOLKSWAGEN is going electric by launching a battery powered city car that sounds as if it's straight out of Yorkshire.
The e-up! is an electric version of the baby of the VW range and is based on the five door, top specification High up!
Costing £19,250 after the Government's £5,000 subsidy for electric vehicles the e-up! is some £8,000 more expensive than the petrol-powered model but comes with extra equipment and is cheaper to run.
That is if electric motoring works for you and as with any other so-called EV the e-up! is no more than an everyday commuter with a realistic range of about 80 miles.
Yet for city dwellers, especially within the London congestion charge zone, they can make sense, slashing weekly fuel costs to around £6 (based on three battery recharges) and reducing service costs to a minimum.
There's fewer moving parts on an electric car and maintenance really is all about topping up fluid levels.
What's more, the electric up! actually out-performs its petrol counterparts when it comes to acceleration and is more than capable of holding its own at motorway speeds.
We have just put the e-up! through its paces around Milton Keynes where VW has its UK headquarters and there's a good variety of roads.
Setting out with 84 miles range showing on the instrument panel a five mile burst at 70mph along the A5 quickly reduced that figure to 67 miles.
Around town and in traffic the e-up! comes into its own and after a total of 15 miles there was still 63 miles showing, all helped by the car's regenerative braking system which diverts power back to the batteries as you slow down.
Get used to it and you can drive the e-up! solely on the accelerator such is the effect of the braking moment as you come off the throttle.
There are a variety of drive modes to help conserve energy and when regenerative braking is at its maximum the brake lights come on automatically to alert following motorists.
Apart from the quietness of the ride - there's no whine from the power system only a minimal amount of wind and road noise - driving the e-up! is as easy as any other automatic but absolutely smooth under acceleration since there are no gears - just forward and reverse.
The layout of the controls is also familiar although the speedo is flanked not by a fuel gauge but a battery state indicator and another dial showing instant power flow.
Over and above the equipment you get on the High up! the electric car comes with climate control which varies in effect depending on the drive mode. To conserve power in what VW calls Eco+ mode, the heater is disabled to reduce the drain on the battery.
Other features special to the e-up! include a heated windscreen, automatic emergency braking in traffic and remote control services which operate via a smartphone enabling drivers to monitor the car's charge state and even pre-programme the heating before you get in.
From the outside, apart from aerodynamically styled 15-inch alloys and a blue surround to the VW badge on the front, the e-up! looks the same as any up! - a refreshing approach given the futuristic styling of some other electric cars that have arrived over the past couple of years.
Sat nav, cruise control and a digital radio are also fitted as standard and with the lithium-ion battery pack slung underneath the body luggage space is virtually the same as on the regular car - it's actually one litre less at 250 litres.
The charging point is sited on the back offside wing where the fuel filler is normally sited and the necessary connectors can be stored in the underfloor section of the boot without taking up much space.
When it comes to statistics the motor on the e-up pumps out the equivalent of 82ps compared to the 75ps of the three cylinder petrol engine, top speed is 81 mph and 0 to 60 takes 12.4 seconds which makes it the quickest of the range.
The weight of the battery - the electric car is some 200kg more - gives a lower centre of gravity and that helps handling, making it nice and nippy if necessary and it's easy to park with rear sensors another standard feature.
Overall it's well appointed, great to drive and with leasing costs below £200 a month the e-up! can make a lot of sense as an everyday if you don't need to cover big mileage.
VW's take on bringing EVs to market as a derivative of current models will continue later this year with the arrival of an electric version of the award winning Golf which will be followed by a plug-in hybrid - and that's going to be a car where range constraints will not be an issue.