It takes two to tango! And our spies have snapped VW and Skoda’s first versions of the New Small Family (NSF) cars hot weather testing together in Death Valley in the US.
Measuring 3.45-metres long, 1.63-metres wide and 1.5-metres high, the car is a little bigger than the current Toyota Aygo, Citroen C1 and Peugeot 107 family. And while these mules are heavily disguised, the high-level brake lights, short bonnet and wheel-at-each-corner stance are all recognisable from the original VW Up! concept shown at Frankfurt in 2007.
Both VW and Skoda models feature the same design traits, indicating that styling tweaks to distinguish the cars between brands will be fairly minimal.
The three-door supermini will have space for four adults and feature a range of downsized petrol and diesel engines. The base model will start from around £8,500 and get a 65bhp three-cylinder 1.0-litre petrol, while a 75bhp four-cylinder 1.2-litre diesel will also be offered.
A range-topping 85bhp turbocharged 1.0-litre four-cylinder engine comes later in 2012, while a fully electric version is expected to arrive in 2013.
VW, Skoda and SEAT will each launch versions of the three-door car. The VW version is due first, in late 2011, with the other brands following in early 2012. A larger five-door model will be added in summer 2012. VW will take responsibility for building the car at its plant in Bratislava, Slovakia from next year.
VW has a history of giving its concept cars a name derived from an existing production model. For example, the Iroc concept became the current Scirocco, and the Up! concept is likely to follow suit by becoming the Lupo.
Skoda may choose to adopt the Joyster name, taken from its previous small-car concept, while SEAT may elect to resurrect the Arosa name of its previous small car which was based on the last generation Lupo. For more details click here.
Thanks to: Auto Express
