Skip to main content

VW’s ID Buzz Needs to Impress China Before it Becomes Real

If your life goals for the near future include recreating the Summer of Love, there’s some far-out news arriving from Volkswagen. Public reaction to the automaker’s electric I.D. Buzz concept proved positive enough to give executives confidence in European and American demand for the reborn Microbus.

Unfortunately for latter-day hippies and retirement-age flower children, their enthusiasm for this out-of-sight green machine won’t be enough for VW to start production. It seems that the model’s future hinges not on the Counter Culture Revolution, but the Cultural Revolution.

For VW to give the model a green light, the automaker must be confident in its global success. That means sparking interest not only in San Francisco, but also Beijing.

db2017au00543-750x500

According to Autocar, the automaker needs to be sure of Chinese buy-in.

“The concept has been well-received in the US and Europe,” VW design chief Klaus Bischoff told the publication at the Geneva Motor Show, “but the missing link is China. From the business case point of view it’s quite an investment – it needs a global green light. In the meantime, it’s thumbs up.”

After 16 years of Microbus-inspired concepts that went nowhere, one hopes VW has concluded that this can’t go on indefinitely. An EV model built on the company’s dedicated electric architecture would allow for authentic retro proportions, while the green element seems tailor-made to tap into the brand goodwill of the 1960s. It seems the company knows this.

At the concept’s launch late last year, VW sales and marketing head Jurgen Stackmann stated, “I think this is the most realistic shot ever at the Microbus coming.”

Designers in Wolfsburg are already working on turning the I.D. Buzz into a production-ready vehicle, Bischoff told Autocar. The model is “more than a show car,” he claimed. After previous failed attempts to resurrect the Microbus, Bischoff implied that this is the last kick at the can.

“I’ve tried quite a bit to bring this [the Microbus] to life,” he said. “This is the final temptation.”

If VW does decide to go ahead with the model, it would appear alongside an electric compact car and a host of other models at the start of the next decade. VW claims 270 miles of range and all-wheel drive, making the I.D. Buzz a fairly practical people carrier.

This post first appeared on The Truth About Cars

The post VW’s ID Buzz Needs to Impress China Before it Becomes Real appeared first on VWVortex.



from VWVortex http://ift.tt/2lTngU6
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Project SportWagen: Going Stage 2 with APR

    When we last left you, the humble little SportWagen was fresh from the development process with our friends at AWE Tuning, sporting a new downpipe, exhaust and intake, allowing things to breathe a bit easier.  The car sounded great, but there was no getting around the fact that our wagon was still quite, well, slow.   While we realize that nothing we do to the Golf SportWagen at this point will make it a race car, we still felt compelled to do something .  To put it bluntly, we had a fever, and the only cure was more power. Flash forward a few hours, and we found ourselves at Waterfest, staring down APR’s palatial spread and the numerous tuned vehicles surrounding it.  Earlier in the year, APR had hinted to us that their 1.8 TSI files would be quite impressive, and based on what they were able to do with the 2.0 TSI found in the new GTI and our time in their Golf R, we knew it’d be worth the wait.  So with this in mind, we lined our G...
Post a Comment
Read more

Watch: The Zerouno Cruis’n USA

ItalDesign is drumming up excitement for its new supercar based around the same 5.2-liter Audi V10 that powers the R8. Naturally, it hit the road for a cruise around California last week to celebrate Monterey Car Week. There isn’t much in the way of V10 noise—which is a real shame given the sound it makes—but you do at least get a good look at the car inside and out in this video. With a body made entirely of carbon fiber and designed to be as aerodynamic and light as possible, ItalDesign figures that it will be good for a 0-60 time of just 3.2 seconds. “We put it our best skills into the production of the first car,” said Massimo Bovi, head of pre-series production, when the Zerouno was first unveiled in Geneva earlier this year. “Using some of the finest productions methods and engaging our high-skilled workers.” The car features clever aero tricks gleaned from single-seat racing, like a y-duct up front to improve downforce and turn-in. Available in a number of trim levels, the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Volkswagen Golf GTE Wins Top Honor at the 2015 Business Techies Awards

Golf GTE wins Green category in the 2015 BusinessCar Fleet Technology awards Judges praised the Golf GTE for its performance, ease of use and economy Golf GTE launched earlier this year with plug-in hybrid technology – priced from £33,755 204 PS performance combined with CO 2  emissions of just 39 g/km Volkswagen has added to its growing list of 2015 automotive industry accolades by winning the Green category in the annual BusinessCar Fleet Technology Awards – the Techies. The prestigious title was awarded to Volkswagen for the Golf GTE, an innovative plug-in hybrid that combines sporty dynamics with exceptional fuel economy and low CO 2  emissions. Now in their seventh year, the Techies are judged by both BusinessCar’s experienced editorial panel with help from TRL’s technology expert. The industry’s only technology-specific awards, the BusinessCar Techies reward the use of technology to make business car fleet operations easier, cheaper, cleaner, safer and more straig...
Post a Comment
Read more