Photo: Volkswagen
Volkswagen speaks of putting dozens of all-new electric models on the market by 2025, but so far it has only shown a handful of concepts. One of them is the I.D. Buzz microbus, or as everybody likes to call it, the modern-age Love Van.
The German company made no attempts to hide where this electric minivan drew its design inspiration from, and even if it did, it would have been in vain. The similarities are so striking that even somebody whose parents were born after the '60s will tell there's a Type 2 hiding underneath it somewhere.
The I.D. Buzz was initially shown at the start of this year in Detroit, and we haven't heard much about it since. It was the second concept in VW's new electric range after the compact car that launched the I.D. name in Paris last year, and it may have come as a surprise for some.
In a world where if the first, then at least the second model of a new brand or sub-brand is an SUV, Volkswagen decided to go with a minivan - one of the worst-selling segments on the market right now and one that doesn't show signs of recovery. However, Volkswagen's offering is more than that: the Bulli is an icon that transcends segments and doesn't care about sales, figures and any other boring stuff like that.
"Emotional cars are very important for the brand," said Herbert Diess, Volkswagen CEO, while talking to British magazine AutoExpress. "We are selling loads of Beetles still, particularly in US markets. But we will also have the Microbus that we showed, which we have recently decided we will build."
So it looks like the smartphone generation is going to get its own version of the Love Van - which, with the advent of autonomous driving technology, could begin to live up to its name even on the move.
The concept was built on an elongated version of the MEB platform and came with one electric motor on each axle for a combined power of 370 hp. The battery pack had a capacity of 110 kWh, giving the I.D. Buzz a maximum estimated range of 270 miles (~434 km).
With the market launch planned for 2022 at best, the specs, as well as the design, are subject to changes. In fact, consider everything about the Buzz purely informative, except the fact that it's going to be built. If Diess said so, then it must mean it's happening.
The I.D. Buzz was initially shown at the start of this year in Detroit, and we haven't heard much about it since. It was the second concept in VW's new electric range after the compact car that launched the I.D. name in Paris last year, and it may have come as a surprise for some.
In a world where if the first, then at least the second model of a new brand or sub-brand is an SUV, Volkswagen decided to go with a minivan - one of the worst-selling segments on the market right now and one that doesn't show signs of recovery. However, Volkswagen's offering is more than that: the Bulli is an icon that transcends segments and doesn't care about sales, figures and any other boring stuff like that.
"Emotional cars are very important for the brand," said Herbert Diess, Volkswagen CEO, while talking to British magazine AutoExpress. "We are selling loads of Beetles still, particularly in US markets. But we will also have the Microbus that we showed, which we have recently decided we will build."
So it looks like the smartphone generation is going to get its own version of the Love Van - which, with the advent of autonomous driving technology, could begin to live up to its name even on the move.
The concept was built on an elongated version of the MEB platform and came with one electric motor on each axle for a combined power of 370 hp. The battery pack had a capacity of 110 kWh, giving the I.D. Buzz a maximum estimated range of 270 miles (~434 km).
With the market launch planned for 2022 at best, the specs, as well as the design, are subject to changes. In fact, consider everything about the Buzz purely informative, except the fact that it's going to be built. If Diess said so, then it must mean it's happening.
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