Volkswagen has dropped two teaser images of a new dune buggy concept, confirming the show car will be fully revealed at the Geneva International Motor Show in early March 2019.
From way back in the 1960s in California, dune buggies were based on the Beetle chassis (VW says globally around 250 000 individual vehicles were built as one-offs or at low volumes through to the 1980s). But the upcoming concept will be fully electric and thus run on the German firm’s modular electric drive matrix (MEB) platform.
Still, this “reinterpretation of a dune buggy” (as VW describes it) will have no fixed roof or conventional doors. It will furthermore boast large wheels shod in off-road rubber plus open side sills.
While the Wolfsburg-based automaker has not confirmed plans for a full production version of this electric dune buggy, it does say the MEB platform “has the potential to facilitate the development of low-volume niche vehicles”.
“A buggy is more than a car. It is vibrancy and energy on four wheels. These attributes are embodied by the new e-buggy, which demonstrates how a modern, non-retro interpretation of a classic can look and, more than anything else, the emotional bond that electric mobility can create,” said Klaus Bischoff, head designer at Volkswagen.
