Volkswagen bus is back, baby! The EV revolution finds peace and love with ID. Buzz

tech.hindustantimes.com:

Volkswagen’s new bus marks an electric milestone: the move from mainstream to niche. It took almost 20 years, a step-change in driving technology, a diesel emissions scandal and a geopolitical gas crisis, but the Volkswagen bus is back, baby! Volkswagen pulled the cover off the retro-bus Wednesday, a battery-powered van awkwardly dubbed the ID. Buzz. The cavernous machine will ship to European dealers later this year and can be configured for all kinds of Tetris situations, from smelly mattresses to surfboards and dog beds. With organic paint and vegan leather, it’s entirely on brand. American drivers won’t be able to slide into one until 2024, but rest assured they will be lining up for it shortly.

This van may kill the stigma of the electric vehicle as a compliance car — a cramped, eat-your-vegetables tool for a few crunchy consumers and corporations stretching to squeeze under emissions mandates. Sure, the GMC Hummer is now among us, with its 9,000-plus pounds and tank-driving tricks, but the camper-van is arguably an even more extreme use-case for electrification.

For one thing, its reason for being is the road trip. The #vanlife crowd isn’t commuting or heading to Costco; that’s for the Hummer bros. These rigs are bound for the beach and Burning Man.

Secondly, vans are not — and have never really been — hot-selling vehicles. Last year, Americans bought just 311,000 minivans, a rounding error in Detroit and 35% fewer than they did just five years ago.

Of course, a VW bus is a bit different. The company has cranked out about 7 million of them over the years and when Volkswagen stopped shipping new versions to America in 2003, it just keep churning on its own cult momentum. Indeed, the most treasured classic Transporters