The VW bus as we know it based on the T6.1 will soon be history. You can only buy the current VW bus in the panel van, transporter and caravelle variants as stock already assembled and have not been reconfigured for some time. So you have to take a VW bus as it is already there and can no longer have your own equipment requirements implemented.
The reason: Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (VWN) will end production of the old VW bus based on the T6.1 in the summer of 2024. Everything that is still being produced in the factories has already been sold or at least ordered.
The old VW bus is only available from stock,
Volkswagen commercial vehicles
The reason for the exit
Now the current VW Bus T6.1 (test report and test of the predecessor T6) is still selling well, as Auto Motor und Sport reports, for example. Nevertheless, VW Commercial Vehicles stopped producing this successful model. The reason for this: From July 2024, the EU will give automobile manufacturers significantly stricter requirements for the cybersecurity of the new vehicles produced from then on.
VWN would have to massively improve its IT and infotainment system for the existing VW bus, which is already very old (the T6.1 has a newer infotainment system, but the vehicle frame and body are still based on the T5, which VW introduced in 2003). revise or replace. According to VWN, it’s not worth it or the company is afraid of costs and effort.
That’s why VWN is taking its successful model out of sale in summer 2024. With one exception: VWN is allowed to build the Camper California based on the T6.1 for a few more months. Because the new IT security rules for motorhomes will only come into effect from September 2024, as Auto Motor und Sport writes.
This is the new VW bus
Of course, VWN still offers a Transporter and a Caravelle. However, this is no longer a vehicle developed by VW itself, but rather the Ford Transit Custom, which VW has adapted to its needs and appearance. But ultimately, future VW bus customers will buy a Ford van that is manufactured in Turkey (by the way, VW has the current T6.1 built as a Transporter and Caravelle in Poznan, Poland). You can read more about the new VW bus (Transporter, Caravelle) based on Ford in New VW Bus/Transporter T7: all data, equipment, first price – advance sales have started.
The situation is different with the VW Multivan (which no longer shares the vehicle base with the VW Transporter/Caravelle since 2021) and for the purely electric VW ID.Buzz. VW still builds these two vehicles itself. The VW bus family now consists of several different branches and looks like this:
