Volkswagen Kombi returning to Oz

The bongo van is coming back!

The world’s most iconic van, the Volkswagen Kombi, will be reborn by 2022 — more than 70 years after it first went into production as the Volkswagen Type 2 in 1950 as the brand's second model after the Beetle.

Wrapped in a retro-look body that hides an advanced battery-powered drivetrain, Volkswagen’s born-again Kombi will be sold under the German car-maker’s pure-electric I.D. sub-brand that will be introduced in Europe in 2020 but potentially much later in Australia.

A small hatchback will spearhead the I.D. model family (which will also include an SUV, sports car and flagship sedan), but it's the Kombi that’s most likely to bring Volkswagen's EV strategy into the mainstream psyche – including in Australia.

"We get a lot of reaction to that vehicle," Volkswagen Australia's product planning manager for SUVs and passenger cars, Jeff Shafer, told motoring.com.au.

Shafer confirmed that Volkswagen Australia was "very positive" about the new-generation Kombi, which will be even more suited to peace-loving mung-beaners than ever, given it will run purely on electricity, not petrol.

"There would certainly be a market for a vehicle like that here," Shafer said.

Based on Volkswagen's new EV-specific MEB platform, the new people-mover will offer a range of around 450km per charge and may also feature a modular interior layout comprising up to six seats and various accessories, including a bed and a table.

Volkswagen has already confirmed a production version of the I.D. Buzz concept – a Kombi by any other name – will be released in 2022, and like the show car its design will be heavily influenced by the original Kombi.

Called the Microbus or Bulli in other markets, the original VW Kombi was more than just a people-mover and, in its halcyon days, was popular with surfers, adventurers and people who liked camping.

It also saw active duty in a range of commercial vehicle applications, from ice cream vans and ambulances to delivery vehicles, and restored examples have never attracted higher prices.

At the time of writing there were five Volkswagen Kombi vans from the early 1960s selling for more than $100,000 each on carsales.com.au, with one specimen listed at just under $280,000.

Although people-movers – especially compact ones -- are not big sellers in Australia, where the Kia Carnival and Toyota Tarago lead the market, the Kombi's appeal is far more broad-spectrum.

"There's a lot of positive nostalgia around the original Kombi," said Shafer.

"I think with that car [I.D. Buzz] it's nice to see it's not just purely retro styling -- it's a combination of the ethos of that [classic Kombi] car, and the new technology.

“One of the great things about the MEB products, the I.D. products, is that the packaging frees up a lot of space."

Although the I.D. Buzz concept appears fairly compact, Shafer says looks can be deceiving: "It's not a small car. It's not teeny-tiny – it's spacious inside.

"The thing about our MEB electric vehicle platform, the interior space is a size up. So, if you have an EV the size of a Golf, you get the interior space of a Passat.

"You can have this clever packaging because the internal structure is different to conventional cars," said Shafer.

"We're seeing this big step forward in electric vehicles built on dedicated platforms, as opposed to batteries being stuffed into a conventional architecture," he said.

That includes vehicles such as the Volkswagen Golf GTE plug-in hybrid, which will not be coming to Aussie showrooms.

Instead, Volkswagen Australia's electric car assault will — eventually — include vehicles such as the new Kombi and at least four other as-yet-unnamed I.D. EVs.

The German car giant says it plans to build 16 new EV factories around the world over the next four years, churning out 80 new electric cars and SUVs across the Audi, Porsche and Volkswagen brands.

But there's one major hurdle in Australia – charging infrastructure – which along with high prices for EVs such as the Nissan LEAF have seen Australians shun battery-powered cars thus far.

Nevertheless, aided by Australia's love affair with the Kombi, Volkswagen thinks its products will be so compelling – and potentially more affordable than its competition – that it won't need government incentives for them to succeed here.

"We're not looking to the federal government to subsidise the uptake of electric vehicles,” said Shafer.

“We see bringing the right product to market at the right price as our job.”