Photos: Volkswagen Autogroup

Headlines swelled last week after Volkswagen’s design division unveiled a a new electric VW buggy concept. Some headlines pointed towards a rebirth of the VW buggy, but predictably, this concept vehicle is more concept, than vehicle. And that concept is nothing more than an adaption of California car culture from the ’60s and ’70s and Bruce Meyer’s original air-cooled beach buggy. But sentimentality aside, VW’s new modular electric platform provides some of the same qualities as the old air-cooled unit did, but on a production-car scale.

The new ID. BUGGY is set to debut at the 89th Geneva International Motor Show in March. Underneath the modernized buggy exterior, is VW’s new modular electric platform, called the MEB, or Modular Electric Toolkit, which could be the basis for a number of Volkswagen electric vehicles in the future. To spice up the idea of a new electric platform, VW crafted the new open-air electric buggy, that tips its hat to classic kit car creators like Bruce Meyers.

What the ID. BUGGY concept actually represents, is a modular electric platform that will be the basis of many large-scale production electric vehicles. VW also envisions customizable “low-series vehicles” that would build off the MEB platform, just classic kit cars built off of the Beetle.

Until we all learn more about the electric platform and how it operates, it’s hard to say whether VW’s new technology has a future in the kit car market, or whether this is just a fancy bit of marketing. Noting the adoption of electric technology from Tesla in cars like the Exocet, we’re hopeful that bright minds will pioneer new ways to adapt EV technology for motorsport.