Volskwagen to launch self-driving EV microbus
Volkswagen plans to relaunch its Microbus model as a self-driving electric MPV with a potential range of up to 500km. The vehicle is part of a series of five cars designed to spearhead Volkswagen’s entry into the EV market. The seven-seater electric MPV will be based around the same MEB platform as the company’s theoretical five-door ID concept vehicle, an electric hatchback due to launch in 2019. The revamped Microbus will feature a liquid-cooled lithium-ion battery, a flat floor and the latest autonomous driving functions, which are being developed for the EV lineup.
An electric resurrection of the Volkswagen Microbus, one capable of some degree of autonomous driving, is apparently in order.

Reports claim that the electric Microbus concept is one of 5 electrified concepts that have been chosen to “spearhead the company’s entry into the electric car ranks at the end of the decade.”

The unconfirmed concept was apparently “conceived by a team of Volkswagen engineers headed by development boss Frank Welsch,” so presumably a fair amount of work went into it. This is also a concept that has been rumored for well over a year.

The vehicle would make a lot of sense, as an all-electric Microbus — one with a good range and pricing — would probably sell pretty well (even with Volkswagen’s somewhat tarnished reputation). It also seems like an ideal vehicle for Volkswagen’s new MOIA initiative, which conspicuously doesn’t show a vehicle on its website.

Autocar provides more:

“According to Volkswagen insiders with knowledge of the heavily shrouded project, the seven-seat electric powered MPV is based around the same flexible MEB platform as the five-door ID concept. … The MEB structure, which sites new Volkswagen concept’s liquid cooled lithium-ion battery within the floorplan to provide it with a completely flat floor, has been modified to suit the characteristics of the new Microbus, with both a longer wheelbase and wider track widths than those seen on the ID. …

“The new Microbus is also claimed to benefit from the same space saving driveline layout as the ID, with a power electronics package sited up front and a 122 kW electric motor mounted low down at the rear within the rear axle assembly… Nothing is official at this stage, though computer simulations are claimed to reveal the expansive floor area of the Microbus concept provides sufficient space for a battery large enough to endow it with nominal range of up to 500 km.”

Sufficient space … sure. But how expensive would the battery pack for a 500 km range be? Even assuming that figure relates to the optimistic (inaccurate) European testing cycle, that is still a very high range. Such a battery pack won’t be cheap, not even in 2020.

Interestingly, the concept apparently features a “classic” Microbus body design — so they company probably is intending for nostalgia to count for something, as it did with the launch of the “new” Beetle a while back.

Top image by Kyle Field | CleanTechnica. Other images by Volkswagen.

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