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Motoring industry observers who wondered what Volkswagen and computer company Apple were talking about in California the other day got their answer at the Frankfurt Motor Show when VW unveiled its new people's car, the up!
The hip-looking up! concept represents VW's new design direction, along with a
new VW family of small, fuel-efficient, four-seater vehicles. It is a mini aimed at the young and the restless - a car for all languages, says the company. It is also VW's first rear-engined car since the original Beetle.
In marketing speak, it is VW's version of the iPod, Apple's portable music player. The design is clean and simple, just like the iPod. The up! launch model is white, just like the iPod. Other production colours will follow, just like the iPod.
VW chief Professor Martin Winterkorn met Apple CEO Steve Jobs in Los Angeles. Unsourced reports said they discussed the possible development of a car. Both companies had worked together before in the US, around the time of the launch of the iPod. They will surely work again - white Apple laptop computers in use at a special unveiling of VW Group (VW, Audi, Seat, Bentley, Bugatti) models in Frankfurt made that clear. This place used to be Windows-only territory.
The up! will be Apple-product friendly, including iPod and iPhone connections. The iPhone is Apple's mobile phone. VW-owned Audi is making its cars iPhone friendly. Winterkorn ran Audi before moving to VW.
BMW is going the iPhone way too. It had a special display showing how iPhone will be integrated across the BMW range. The iPhone is one of the fastest-selling products of all time - one million sales in 10 or so weeks. And that's just in the United States.
The iPhone goes on sale in the UK and Europe before Christmas. But Vodafone won't be the carrier. Vodafone is apparently coming out with a rival system to the iPhone's music component. It is understood to have backed away from a deal with Apple over revenue from voice, data and text.
New Zealand will get iPhone next year. By then VW will have confirmed that the up! is going into production. It will say again what Winterkorn is saying now, that the car will win new customers throughout the world, that the simplicity of its design reflects the future of VW, that it is a car for everyone. It is a vehicle that represents the story of my profession, says Winterkorn.
But the up! is not a retro model, like the new Mini or new Beetle. "We are not doing retro," says the head of VW design, Klaus Bischoff. But he acknowledges the symbolic link to the original Beetle. "If you are saying that the engine in the back and the simple, clean design points to VW's roots, then be my guest."
Bischoff won't talk production dates. "The up! remains a concept. But the basic exterior will remain, and as far as keeping the look of the concept through to production - so far, so good," he says.
Nor will his boss talk production. "The up! is not a car whose form will become obsolete within a very brief period of time," says VW Group design chief Walter de Silva. "The up! is a clear and strong statement for future Volkswagen design."
VW is using the Frankfurt show to gauge reaction to the vehicle. Says technical development board member Dr Ulrich Hackenberg: "For Volkswagen, the response of Frankfurt Motor Show visitors will be a decisive test to determine whether the concept has the same kind of potential possessed by the Beetle at one time or by the Golf today."
The up! (VW is keeping the origin of the name and the significance of the exclamation mark to itself for the moment) is 3.45m long and based on a new platform powered by two- and three-cylinder diesel drivetrains. It would be expected to sell for around €6000 ($11,700).
Up front, it retains the VW face, while at the rear the transparent tailgate contains a glowing Volkswagen roundel. The company says it freed up interior space and improved the car's stability by pushing each of the four wheels into the corners.
The lightweight passenger seats, which have inflatable pockets to maximise comfort, can be removed to allow larger loads. The launch car carried a surfboard in place of the front and rear passenger seats.
VW says the up! concept allows driver and passengers to interface with the vehicle. A touch-sensitive screen controls air-conditioning, entertainment and vehicle controls. A second screen, mounted ahead of the driver, instantly provides more vehicle information, including fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
The concept is a critical part of VW's 10-year strategic plan that aims to close the productivity and profit gap with Toyota.
Winterkorn is establishing sales goals and financial targets as he seeks to catch up with a carmaker that has outpaced VW in terms of sales and profitability for the past seven years.
Winterkorn has had his sights on Toyota from the moment he took up his job in Wolfsburg at the beginning of the year, insiders say. He has pledged to extract better productivity and higher profits from VW. He said earlier this year: "In the last five, six years, Toyota has pulled ahead of us and what we plan to do is to reduce the lead that they've got."
Porsche chief Wendelin Wiedeking agrees that Toyota is the benchmark. Wiedeking, a member of the VW supervisory board, masterminded his company's acquisition of a 31 per cent stake in VW last year. He is expected to play a role of growing importance in VW's future.
VW is copying what Winterkorn did when he was boss of Audi. While there, he boosted productivity and initiated Route 15, a blueprint for growth based on a vast array of new models. Now, VW managers are setting goals for 2018.