Time’s up for the Volkswagen Up. Yes, the German firm has reportedly axed its smallest car – which was once offered in SA – after a production run spanning 12 years…

The Volkswagen Up is no more. According to a fresh report out of Europe, the Wolfsburg-based automaker has stopped manufacturing the diminutive city car at its Bratislava factory in Slovakia after a production run of 12 years.

Autocar reports the Up has finally reached the end of the line. Of course, production of the Up’s platform siblings – the Škoda Citigo and Seat Mii, neither of which was ever offered in SA – ended in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

The pre-facelift Cross Up touched down in SA in May 2016.

As a reminder, VW first started building the tiny city car back in 2011, though the nameplate arrived in South Africa (initially in 3-door hatchback form) only in February 2015. The local launch took place after seemingly much deliberation from VW SA, which likely had concerns that the new model would overlap with the Kariega-built Polo Vivo.

By May 2016, the 5-door version of the classy little Up hatch had touched down in South Africa (including a then-new SUV-mimicking Cross derivative), before the range was handed a subtle facelift in November 2016. At that point, the 3-door derivatives fell away from the local line-up. The Up was then quietly discontinued in Mzansi around the final quarter of 2020, with the fully electric e-Up and the Up GTI warm hatch never making it to local shores.

The VW Up GTI was unfortunately never offered in Mzansi.

In South Africa, the Volkswagen Up was powered by a naturally aspirated 1.0-litre, 3-cylinder petrol engine, which delivered peak outputs of 55 kW and 95 Nm to the front axle via a 5-speed manual gearbox (no automatic transmission was on offer in SA). Locally, the city car was available in the Take, Move, Colour, Cross and Beats trim levels.

The as-yet-unrevealed VW ID.1 – a small, sub-ID.2 fully electric city car – is likely to serve as an eventual replacement for the Up in Europe.

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