Los Angeles motor show - Volkswagen Up! family

Volkswagen is on the verge of committing itself to the investment needed to build a range of advanced, clean, fuel-efficient small cars based on the Up! family of concept vehicles it has been wheeling out at motor shows over the past three months.

The third instalment in the Up! family came out from under the covers at the Los Angeles Auto Show yesterday.

Called Space Up! Blue, it is styled to look like a smaller version of the 1950s VW Samba Bus, but is powered by electric batteries or a liquid hydrogen fuel cell.

The batteries are rechargeable either by plugging the car into the mains or via roof-mounted solar panels, while the fuel cell is a high-temperature system that is said to avoid many of the efficiency losses that lower-temperature rivals incur while converting hydrogen and oxygen into electricity.

VW claims a range of 65 miles on battery power alone, and a further 155 miles when using the fuel cell – all with zero emissions.

Will the Up! cars get built?
One of the keys to getting the green light for the project is whether other companies within the VW Group will also be interested in sharing the expensive rear-engined, rear-wheel-drive platform devised for the Up! family.

With Skoda keen to add low-cost small cars to its range, Seat likely to want stylish budget models at the bottom of its line-up and Audi desperate to expand its product options with technically-interesting cars that offer lots of design flexibility, it is certain the plan will be approved.

'First of all we need approval for the platform,' says Dr Ulrich Hackenberg, VW's head of technical development.

'After that we can decide which cars to make, but they won't change in appearance much from the concepts we have shown, and we have lots of derivatives in mind. We will keep this fire burning.'

The Up! theme was launched with a three-door city car at Frankfurt in September. Then, at Tokyo last month, the more roomy and boxy Space Up! came out.

Space Up! Blue is similar tothe second of those, but more retro and with the more advanced drive systems.

A £5000 production car
Production cars are likely to kick off with three-cylinder 1.0- or 1.2-litre petrol or diesel engines, however. VW aims to have a 90-plus mpg car as a headline-grabber and to introduce a base model at around £5000. Carbon dioxide emissions would also be extremely low.

'A car like this (front and rear doors opening in opposite directions, plenty of room for four people and luggage, appealing looks and VW quality) would bring us closer to young people who want a car that's still big enough to take friends out,' says Hackenberg.

'It has to be reachable in terms of price, though. We will develop it step by step, and if we succeed it gives us a chance to generate an icon like the original Beetle.'