On the back of its recent debut at CES 2016, Volkswagen's all-electric BUDD-e concept is said to have been given the go-ahead for production.
has received word that the 21st century VW Microbus will hit the streets and be available in a number of guises, all underpinned by the firm's modular MEB platform.
During an interview, the company's head of electric development Volkmar Tenneberger said “[The] basic idea is to develop a modular toolkit and take this flat battery idea into serial production, one motor on the front, one on the rear. The California and Transporter will continue separately as combustion engines. You will see a car that looks tons like this, on the MEB platform, reach production. I can’t say exactly when, however, 2020 or thereabouts,” he confirmed.
Even before the car debuted, all indications pointed towards it previewing a production model available in a range of guises. The initial all-electric version previewed by the concept will come with a 101 kWh battery pack combined with electric motors at the front and rear. Further down the line, both petrol and diesel four-cylinder derivatives will be offered.