Volkswagen reimagines classic camper for the electric age

Frankfurt, March 9 (AFP/APP): Seventy years after its first model rolled off the factory line, Volkswagen is reinventing the VW bus, symbol of the hippy movement, for today’s climate-conscious generation — but some of its former afficionados remain to be convinced.

The German automaker will on Wednesday evening unveil the camper’s latest iteration, known as the ID.Buzz, part of the flagship ID line with which Volkswagen is leading a multi-billion-euro charge into the electric car market.

Reviving the “icon” was a “priority”, group CEO Herbert Diess said recently in a question-and-answer session on the online forum Reddit.

The new model, with its curvy resemblance to the original VW campers that had their hey-day in the 60s and 70s, was a “turning point” for Volkswagen, according to German car market expert Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer.

Alongside the eye-catching passenger bus, Volkswagen will also present a “particularly important” cargo model with a potentially larger market, Dudenhoeffer says.