Green Wedge
TRANSPORTER RESURRECTION The Volkswagen Type 2 Transporter (better known as the Kombi) is being reinvented as a fully electric vehicle (EV), the ID Buzz.
Back in 2015, the Volkswagen brand suffered a hit by what was dubbed “Dieselgate”, when the company cheated to under-report emissions from its diesel engines. What an environmental and PR disaster that was. The trust the company had built up over decades evaporated. Fast forward to 2017 and the Detroit Motor Show of that year, when the company unveiled its ID Buzz, an electric people-mover inspired in part by the beloved Type 2 Transporter, or Kombi. Not only did it provide the image massage the previously esteemed company required, it also served as a green marker in the figurative sand of where the company is headed. Next year the ID Buzz goes into production, part of VW’s concerted push into EV manufacturing. Indeed, the Teutonic auto maker has invested an astonishing AUD$55 billion into the program. The company plans to launch many EVs, all built at carbon-neutral manufacturing plants, such as the one at Zwickau in eastern Germany. “With our electric cars we want to make a substantial contribution to climate protection,” says VW’s Thomas Ulbrich. “The ID will be a model for sustainable mobility.” Zwickau will be ground zero for the company’s global roll-out of its E-fleet. Capable of manufacturing 330,000 electric vehicles a year, it represents the world’s first transformation of a major car factory from internal combustion production to e-mobility. As for the ID Buzz, if the concept model is followed it will have eight seats, two electric motors producing 275kW, all-wheel drive, and a 600km range.
Feeling the buzz? The electric Kombi is scheduled to go into production in 2022.
And should everything go to plan, it will be the first VW capable of autonomous driving. ■
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August–September 2021
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