Britain’s Car Magazine reports that Volkswagen’s BUDD-E electric vehicle has got the green light to go into production for 2020.
Volkswagen’s all-electric BUDD-e concept will make the jump into serial production, CAR understands. The VW BUDD-e concept, first seen at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), is an ultramodern take on the VW ‘Microbus’ theme, built upon Volkswagen’s upcoming MEB modular electric platform. Dr Volkmar Tanneberger, head of electronic development and the driving force behind the BUDD-e concept, told CAR magazine’s Ben Barry: ‘[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 [camper van] and Transporter [panel van and minibus line] will continue separately as combustion engines.’ ‘You will see a car that looks a lot like this, on the MEB platform, reach production. I can’t say exactly when, but 2020 or thereabouts,’ says Tanneberger.
I’ve got mixed feelings about this. On one hand, the more electric vehicle options the better and we all know that the electrical vehicle market is lacking in van options. Also, it is clear from the popularity of the amazing eSamba project that there is a huge market for electric VW Busses.
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- VW BUDD-e
The flip side is that the BUDD-E concept was so far away from the Westfalia-type of VW bus and more like a big ugly futuristic minivan mixed with a tall Mini Cooper. Clearly VW isn’t going to make what we saw at CES but if the BUDD-E design aesthetic is where they are going, then there is going to be a rude awakening.
Also 2020? That’s four years away. By then Tesla will have its truck platform out and no one will care. Want to see a really cool Electric VW MicroBus? Check out these eSamba projects and did you know that you can buy a conversion kit for $7000?!
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I like this site a lot, but you really need to tone down the pro-tesla retoric. This is coming from a TMS owner, and declared Elon fanboy. Tone it down or lose any journalistic credibility you might have.
“take this flat battery idea into serial production, one motor on the front, one on the rear” – gee, I wonder where that flat battery idea came from?
Not to mention the front & rear motor. How innovative of you VW; just don’t mess around with the battery pack’s state-of-charge readings, ok?
I like this Budd-e concept and I doubt Tesla will have the Model 3 out in volume by 2020, not to mention a minivan.
I hate this irrealistic fanboy talk. It’s just annoying.
“Electrek is a news site tracking the transition from fossil fuel transportation to electric and the surrounding clean ecosystems”
Looks like a Tesla fansite reading this. And why the TSLA stock on top of this page?
Finally, finally VW is getting it …. Coming from the DIESEL “dark-ages” – VW desperately need to be on the right side of history. GO FULLY ELECTRIC and do what they did best – make beautiful cars for the masses ….. (TESLA will serve the upper class )