Rendered Speculation: Audi's new up!-based city car

The up! is primed to be VW's long-awaited encore to the "People's Car," providing consumers abroad with an extremely efficient run-about that can get up to 95 European MPGs. The up! sounds like a vehicle VW should have been building all along, but does it sound like an Audi? The scribes over at Auto Express think so, and their rendering of an Audi up! looks the part. The image is a lightly reworked version of the stylish little up! concept, with body panels and roof lines looking very much like the V-Dub city car from that was first unveiled at Frankfurt.
The headlights are more vertical on the Audi and the open mouth look on the up!'s lower fascia is truncated by Audi's trademark split grille. The C-pillar is more triangular than the up! and the taillamps look like they were ripped from an A4 and stretched vertically.
Auto Express is reporting that an Audi version of the up! will be available in 2012. If that's true, it's unlikely we'll see the micro-Audi in the States in '12 anyway. We colonials aren't usually up (rimshot) for spending a big premium for a really small car that isn't named MINI.

[ Via: Auto Express ]
[ Tag: audi city car, Audi up, AudiCityCar, AudiUp, VW up, VwUp ]