Photo: Volkswagen
The great thing about electric powertrains is that they allow for otherwise decrepit cars to be revived. The ease of installation of such a hardware, combined with the fact that there aren't as many moving parts to take care of means restoration of old cars can now be done more easily that ever believed, and over the past year or so we witnessed quite a number of such builds surfacing.
The latest such apparition is the e-Bulli, once a Volkswagen Samba bus converted by the carmaker's Commercial Vehicles division and eClassics to run on electricity. And despite this being just a concept, there are plans to put it into production.
The van was supposed to be shown at the now postponed Techno Classica 2020, but since that event didn't take place it made it's debut online on Thursday, March 19.
So, what do we have here? The body is that of a 1966 Samba bus. It has been recovered after spending more than half a century roaming the roads in California. Once in the shop, the 44 ps/102 Nm boxer internal combustion engine was replaced with an electric drive that produces nearly twice that power: 83 ps and 212 Nm of torque, fed to the rear axle.
Aside from giving the van a new heart, a comprehensive restoration of the body was done as well, and the chassis has been modified with new hardware, such as multi-link front and rear axles, a new rack-and-pinion steering system and four internally ventilated disc brakes, among others.
Those in the market for this type of conversion should prepare themselves for a financial shock. Available on demand, the e-Bulli would set customers back €64,900 (nearly $70,000).
Full details on the e-Bulli, complete with instructions of how to order one, can be found in the press release section below.
The van was supposed to be shown at the now postponed Techno Classica 2020, but since that event didn't take place it made it's debut online on Thursday, March 19.
So, what do we have here? The body is that of a 1966 Samba bus. It has been recovered after spending more than half a century roaming the roads in California. Once in the shop, the 44 ps/102 Nm boxer internal combustion engine was replaced with an electric drive that produces nearly twice that power: 83 ps and 212 Nm of torque, fed to the rear axle.
Aside from giving the van a new heart, a comprehensive restoration of the body was done as well, and the chassis has been modified with new hardware, such as multi-link front and rear axles, a new rack-and-pinion steering system and four internally ventilated disc brakes, among others.
Those in the market for this type of conversion should prepare themselves for a financial shock. Available on demand, the e-Bulli would set customers back €64,900 (nearly $70,000).
Full details on the e-Bulli, complete with instructions of how to order one, can be found in the press release section below.
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