Volkswagen press conference, IAA 2017

The Volkswagen ID.Buzz minivan has elements that harken back to the VW bus. (WIKIMEDIA PHOTO)

Retro is all the rage in the auto industry, and carmakers have caught on with varying success. Jeep has certainly managed to keep the original CJ vibe going through several generations of Wrangler, and Ford has been onboard most recently with the Bronco. In 2002-05, Ford produced a modern Thunderbird that didn’t quite live up to the hype of the original, but the Mustang has lived on through some pretty tenuous connections with its original concept.

Nearly every manufacturer is reaching back to the past to come up with a future design hit and perhaps no one is more attuned to that idea than Volkswagen. I don’t know of any other carmaker who has managed to get as many miles as they have out of the Beetle, literally and figuratively. Their latest attempt at feel-good transportation is the appropriately named ID.Buzz minivan. This EV reimagination of the original microbus has been on the drawing board for a while, and progress has been slow, but it looks like this will be the year it appears in VW showrooms, according to their website.

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