I know the Space Up! Blue from VW was announced last Fall, but this is the last time it will be seen in the US and I got the chance to take a look up close. For all intents and purposes for CG we’ll focus on the interface, which was eerily similar to Apple’s slew of touch screen devices. The monitor in the center is 7-inches of touch screen goodness. It utilizes proximity sensors that react to certain gestures. To scroll through the menu you can either tap on each icon or do the swipe thing and the icons will begin to carousel. When you bring up the phone icon, you hover your hand towards the side and it brings up a cluster of your contacts pictures. Depending on which corner, I think, you hover your hand over it brings a different cluster up for you to choose from. The driver gets an 8-inch monitor that shows info like vehicle speed, battery reserves, hydrogen volume and range as well as album art. Check out the gallery and more info the SUB after the jump.
The SUB is concept and we may or may not see this get produced. I, for one, hope it does go into production because it’s frickin’ sweet. I always wanted one of the old VW buses and this is just ten times better. The rear-engine bus is the world’s first to have a high temperature fuel cell and 12 lithium-ion batteries. The electric motor (45kW/61PS) can handle up to 65 miles on one charge while a full hydrogen charge gets you 220 miles from where you start. Fueling up the SUB is done via an electrical outlet, hydrogen station or directly from the sun. That’s right, the VW SUB has a solar panel on its roof that feeds 150W into the battery. The high temperature fuel cell is far superior to anything else out on the market today because it weighs less, it’s cheaper, and is utilized better on a day-to-day basis.
Going back to the engine, the 45kW/61PS motor churns 10,000 times per minute and produces a maximum torque of 120 Newton-meters. Top speed on the bus is 75MPH and does 0-62MPH in 13.7-seconds. As a quick comparison, other hybrid cars can only go 1.24-miles on the battery alone. The SUB does 65 miles. Two tanks on the belly of the SUB store 3.3 kilograms of compressed hydrogen each. I’ll spare you on the other details I have, but just know that high temperature fuel cells kick ass for a variety of other reasons.
I just hope VW puts this bad boy into production. Enjoy the photos.
This years Space Up has been out for a while now, but these are images of it I’ve not seen yet.
You can tell by the dash board shots that the UI is very “Applely”. (Note the Jack Johnson cover art). The design was made durning the short lived flirtation between Apple and VW. I really hope these two can patch up their differences, there seems to be a lot of crossover between Apple and VW users.
Great pictures! In fact, best ones I’ve seen on the net. You got up close and personal – Thank you! I agree with you: that hot fuel cell is going to be the next best thing. VW also needs to mate it with their new Diesel and we’ll all be pushing towards 100 miles per gallon soon. I love the new Apple interface too. Think of connecting to your Up! with a bluetooth iPhone which automatically downloads your songs to your car’s hard drive to permanently store your albums there. Or sync up your car from iTunes with your home computer. Some pretty cool stuff ahead of us…
Re. VW Space Up Blue. I want 1-2!
Great news for all HYDROGENHEADS world wide.
VW. is showing how we can move away from crude oil to sophisticated hydrogen with space age technology inboard.
As a Kombi Kid from way back I can’t wait to hit the road again with a “True Blue”.
Mike H. founder HYDROGENHEADS. http://www.hydrogenheads.org
LOVE your pics!! Thanks much—I have been obsessed w/ the Space Up! Since I first heard ’bout it a year ago. I am a VW (bus & vanagon) fan & owner. This is the best thing VW has come up w/ in decades!! Hopefully it will make it into production as an electric/hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. I personally could deal with less tech and a giant sunroof (Ala ’80’s Vanagon) But close 2 the concept would be gr8t, too!!!
Thanks again! =)
this is the perfect car! Thanks for the pics! How ould this go through? It needs to happen.
thanks for the pictures.
When I saw it at the LA auto show 2007, I really wanted to be able to buy it, few months later I had to email VW, who of course said it was just a concept…
It mets our needs, specially in California where we have so much sun…