The next-generation Volkswagen Transporter van is due to be unveiled in Spring 2024 and won’t arrive with customers until 2025, but that hasn’t stopped the German brand from revealing the first official details and images of its new medium-sized panel van.
Due to the heavy camouflage worn by the van in the pictures, it’s hard to pick out many visual details, but we can see that the T7 Transporter will feature a large Volkswagen badge on its nose, a rather happy, smiling grille design, relatively small LED headlight units and a simply enormous windscreen that will help with visibility. It also appears to be riding on some quite funky wheels, similar to those found on the all-electric VW ID. Buzz Cargo.
Meanwhile, pictures of the interior show a very tech-centric design for a van, featuring a 12-inch Digital Cockpit instrument panel and 13-inch central touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto smartphone connectivity. The new Transporter also gets lane keeping assist, autonomous emergency braking and traffic sign recognition.
The Transporter will be offered as a panel van in two different body lengths and heights, a Kombi with two rows of seating and a ‘dropside’ double cab. The standard Transporter will measure 5,050mm long – 146mm longer than its predecessor – while the wheelbase has been stretched by 97mm to 3,100mm. Longer wheelbase models grow even further, measuring 5,450mm from nose to tail. The new Transporter is also 128mm wider than its predecessor.
VW says this growth spurt has helped increase space for both passengers and cargo, with the standard Transporter panel van set to offer 5.8 cubic metres of load space, plus there’s 148mm of room between the wheelarches in this new generation. Payload for the diesel-powered models has risen from 1.2 to 1.3 tonnes, while the maximum towing capacity now stands at 2.8 tonnes.
The new Transporter’s wide array of powertrains will kick off with a diesel engine producing either 109bhp, 147bhp or 168bhp, with all-wheel drive to be offered on the two more powerful variants. Next will be a plug-in hybrid model, the Transporter eHybrid, with 229bhp on tap.
Finally, sitting at the top of the range, will be the fully electric eTransporter. Four versions will be available, with the entry-level eTransporter using a 54kWh battery and producing 114bhp. The other three models will feature a larger 83kWh battery, with power outputs of 134bhp, 215bhp and 282bhp to be offered. All four will use a single electric motor to drive the rear wheels, but a dual-motor, all-wheel drive version has been hinted at.
No range figures have been revealed, but the new Volkswagen Transporter is expected to use the same platform as the latest Ford Transit Custom, thanks to an alliance between VW and Ford that started in 2019. This partnership has already borne fruit with the firm’s commercial vehicles, as the new Ford Ranger pick-up truck served as the base for the second-generation Volkswagen Amarok, while badges aside the VW Caddy and Ford Tourneo Connect are essentially the same.
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Therefore the plug-in hybrid Transporter eHybrid should offer a pure-electric driving range of around 30 miles – the same as the new Transit Custom PHEV. Meanwhile the eTransporter should be able to cover over 230 miles on a single charge based on the figures for the new Ford E-Transit Custom.
Van drivers will be interested to know that the new Transporter will not serve as the base for the next-generation Volkswagen California campervan that’s arriving in 2024. That role is going to the T7 Multivan, as was previewed earlier this year by the aptly named ‘California Concept’.
Now find out why everyone loves Volkswagen campervans…
