New VW Microbus: VW boss calls the date

Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess

did with a tweet
aroused the curiosity of VW bus fans. Because Diess tweeted that “the legend will return on September 3rd, 2022”. This means the start date for the microbus. The tweet also includes an animation outlining the microbus.

The Microbus is the first purely electrically powered minibus from Volkswagen. Outwardly, it borrows from the legendary T1, the first generation of the classic VW bus. If you don’t know what this original bus looked like, read on here: VW Bus T1 to T6.1 / T7 – ​​the history of the cult van.

But that is where the problems begin. The fans fear that the Microbus, as VW will actually present it in 2022, will not look exactly as the studies and renderings have promised so far. In other words: That the final shape will look less retro and instead “more modern” or “more factual” or whatever you want to call it. Fans are already expressing this fear under the Diess tweet. VW itself laid the foundation for such worries when it presented the ID Buzz concept vehicle, a rather retro-heavy study of its electric bus, a few years ago. The expectations of the fans are now based on this study.

VW Bus: three variants

The Microbus will be the third variant of the VW bus that Volkswagen will then sell: The future of the VW bus – VW Multivan, T6.1 / Transporter, ID Buzz – 1 becomes 3. For until further notice, VW will continue to sell the previous transporter line of the T6.1 to all those customers who want the VW Bus on the previous platform and with the previous space. This bus is only available with internal combustion engines. VW Commercial Vehicles does not sell the T6.1 in the USA (VWN stopped selling its bus there after the T4).

In addition, the T7 has been available as the basis for the new Multivan since 2021. It has a completely redesigned structure / frame, uses the “Modular Transverse Toolkit (MQB)” and has completely new engines with hybrid variants. The T7 will not be available with a purely electric drive and VW does not intend to offer the T7 in the USA. You can read more about this in the New VW Multivan T7: for the first time as a hybrid, flatter, always online – Red Dot Award.

The electric version of the microbus will also be available from 2022. Also with a completely different structure / frame compared to the T6.1 and based on the modular electric drive kit MEB. The Microbus is also intended to target the US market in particular. VW wants to sell the Microbus there from the end of 2023 or beginning of 2024. In addition, VW wants to use it to start its first autonomous driving service in Germany: ID. Buzz – the first autonomous VW bus will be on German roads in 2025 and VW will be showing the first self-driving VW bus ID.Buzz AD.