VW poised to unveil retro-microbus EV in March

Volkswagen Group plans to unveil the ID Buzz, an electric iteration of its iconic hippie-era microbus, on March 9.

CEO Herbert Diess announced the date in a Twitter post that sketched out the contours of the new design, which draws on the lines of the original model.

VW’s original microbus -- the colorful, bread loaf-shaped van that was a regular sight in the 1960s at music festivals including Woodstock -- has a dedicated fan following.

VW previously said it plans to sell its battery-powered successor in Europe and the U.S.

The EV prototype was seen being tested in Germany last summer.

The ID Buzz is one of "the most anticipated and most hyped" models anticipated from the VW brand since the company launched its new Beetle in the late 1990s, Scott Keogh, head of Volkswagen's North American operations said during a media call.

VW has shown a series of prototypes for a new Microbus over the past decade. But those show vans - the Budd.E and the Bulli - never made it to production, to the frustration of fans of the vehicle.

Keogh said that a three-row version of the ID.Buzz will launch in the United States, where the original microbus became an icon of the counterculture, in late 2023 or early 2024. VW will launch a two-row version in Europe.

VW has embarked on an ambitious push to dethrone Tesla as the global electric-car sales leader.

The German automaker last month allocated 89 billion euros ($100 billion) to EV and software development over the next half decade and has built a dedicated architecture that will underpin a total of 27 battery-powered models by the end of this year.

Reuters contributed to this report