MONTEREY, California – Volkswagen has all its product bases covered. Small, medium and large; micro and retro; gasoline, diesel and hybrid, even electric. But according to Christian Buhlmann of Volkswagen AG, it’s missing something.
“We still don’t have a two-seat convertible or roadster,” Buhlmann tells me on the side of the winding, mountain road that leads to Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca.
A two-door, two-seat drop-top would round out the automaker’s line-up nicely. But how do you make the business case for such a niche product? Leverage modular architectures, swappable drivetrains and parts sharing from the Volkswagen Group’s cadre of brands.
Its plug-and-play, automaker style, and the E-Bugster concept you see here is the product of Volkswagen’s massive scale and powertrain expertise. It’s an all-electric Beetle using components already on the road, and if Buhlmann and his team have their way, you’ll be able to snag one from a VW dealer in the next few years.
The E-Bugster was originally shown at the Detroit Auto Show in January, a not-so-subtle tease as to what the next Beetle Convertible will look like when it debuts in L.A. this fall.
The production drop-top will have four seats (compared to the E-Bugster’s two), a more upright windshield (for safety), a conventional cloth top (there’s no roof on the E-Bugster) and a choice of VW’s naturally aspirated, turbocharged or diesel-powered engines. What it won’t have is the electric drivetrain fitted to this concept – at least, not yet.
The E-Bugster “is a way for us to evaluate a third car for the Beetle family,” says Buhlmann. And he makes a compelling case.
The concept is built off the same vehicle architecture as the sixth-generation Volkswagen Golf (PQ36 for you platform nerds). The powertrain is pulled from the E Golf, a pilot program that includes 20 all-electric hatchbacks running around Detroit, San Francisco, and Washington D.C.
By using an existing platform and drivetrain, the costs of a production version of the E-Bugster would be largely mitigated. Even more so with the adoption of Volkswagen’s new MQB architecture, which bisects the platform into five distinct parts, which can be pieced together to create something as small as a Polo or as large as an Audi A8. And the same goes for the body panels.
Aside from the aforementioned windshield, handmade 20-inch wheels and custom plastic fenders, every bit of metal is from the series production version of the new New Beetle. That keeps costs in check and makes the business angle even stronger.
But what isn’t so strong right now is the drivetrain.
Despite using the same asynchronous motor as the Golf E – complete with 114 horsepower and just shy of 200 pound-feet of torque – the E-Bugster is limited to a scant 30 mph. That’s not a technical limitation as much as a financial one – this concept is worth several million euros and Volkswagen wants to keep me on a very short leash.
Still, the fact that the E-Bugster even moves under its own power is a feat unto itself, as most concepts you see rotating on auto show stands are styling bucks that have no functional drivetrain and sometimes even lack an interior.
But amazingly, the E-Bugster does work. From the 85-kW motor to the massive 14.6-inch brakes pulled from the Audi TT RS, it goes, stops and turns, albeit slowly, with a subtle hint of braking regeneration when lifting off the throttle and going down hill.
While the powertrain isn’t quite up to spec, the interior and exterior have been crafted to perfection. The blue particulates in the paint shine in the early afternoon sun and the white-on-white interior harkens back to oughts-era Apple, complete with smooth plastic trim and even a tablet mounted flush in the dash to handle infotainment duty.
It’s all very plush, but it’s also very conceptual.
However, the underlying technology – both from a platform and power standpoint – is already out there, so it wouldn’t take much to justify the E-Bugster’s life. And there’s a satisfying dichotomy of piloting a retro-styled roadster with a 21st-century drivetrain. The Volkswagen execs should give it the green light, as long as they take my suggestion of naming it the “Bug-E.”
All photos courtesy of Volkswagen AG
Source: Wired
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