We've been talking about Volkswagen's upcoming small car that will make its debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show (IAA) for a while. We were calling it the City Expert and the image to the right is just a mockup from the Internets. Automotive News Europe (subs req'd) now gives us some solid information on this minicar, which is due in 2011.

The car, as we know, is a rear-engine city vehicle, part of a new breed of small cars. VW's internal code name for the project is the boring "F 07." ANE says the likely IAA concept name will be "Up," the middle letters of Lupo, which VW is considering reviving for the production version of this small car. ANE says that VW "CEO Martin Winterkorn is looking into the possibility of building a four-door model as part of a new generation of cars built on the rear-engine platform "New Small Family" (NSF)." More news to come, I'm sure.

[Source: Automotive News Europe]

It's been reported for several months now that Volkswagen was working on two new entry-level successors to the Lupo that was discontinued in 2005 and replaced by the Fox. The first rendering of the new car is now available thanks to German magazine Auto Zeitung, and if it is accurate, the rather overdone grille of recent VW models may be going away. One of the cars will be targeted toward emerging markets like India and Russia to battle the Renault Logan, while the other will be geared more for established markets like Western Europe.

The target price for the emerging market car is 8,000 Euro which will also form the basis for Skoda and Seat branded cars. The new Lupo is should be 3.7 meters long about 5 inches longer than the original and an equal amount less than the Fox. The rear seat can slide longitudinally to allow for more luggage space in back or more rear seat room. The powertrains may start from a new two cylinder engine and go up through four cylinder gas and diesel engines and possibly even an electric version.

[Source: AutoZeitung via eGMCarTech]