The VW Bus, now electrified, keeps on Truckin’

With two-tone paint featuring Sunshine Yellow body panels, the electric Volkswagen Type 2 (colloquially known as the Microbus) was not built for introverts.

This vintage bus, newly fitted out with electric power (its original rear-mounted engine made no more than 53 horsepower), caused a lot of heads to swivel during a leisurely tour of Bergen County, New Jersey, near the Hudson River and the New York border.

Kindred Motorworks, based on Mare Island, California (a former U.S. Navy shipyard north of San Francisco), is betting that it can succeed with an electric version of the beloved Microbus that’s ready for modern traffic.

Volkswagen’s nostalgia-inducing hippie wagon comes in two zero-emission flavors: Kindred’s “restomod” vintage model with a robust electric-vehicle drivetrain, and a new, retro-styled electric bus from the company itself.

Kindred is betting that what affluent EV customers really want, instead of Volkswagen’s slow-selling ID. Buzz, is the return of the first-generation split-window Microbus, extant from 1950 to 1967, albeit with a lot more power. Those customers, the company said, also appreciate such modern touches as heated seats, air conditioning, and connectivity to Apple CarPlay and Android Auto they wouldn’t get in a traditionally restored bus.

Along for the ride in New Jersey were Greg Clark, then the chief commercial officer at Kindred, and Basil Elbanna, a test engineer.

“Customers want authenticity,” Clark said. “There are plenty of companies restoring Microbuses to 100% perfection,” but “don’t even think of climbing hills with one. So a modern EV version makes every sense in the world.”

Elbanna added that there were plenty of primitive aspects to the original Microbus, including a heater that worked (or, in most cases, didn’t) by simply wrapping “heater boxes” around the hot exhaust headers and blowing air through them.

Kindred, under its founder and CEO, Rob Howard, a former technology executive, started out building all manner of so-called restomods, collector cars with modern comforts, and working to make the process more efficient. The company began delivering old Ford Broncos in both gas and electric versions in 2025. But Elbanna said the new EV Microbus, introduced this year, “is our hero product.”

“It solves the only bad thing about the original car — the lack of power,” he said.

According to Clark, Kindred’s goal is to produce approximately 12 electric buses the first year and then scale up to perhaps 50 annually. The conversion remains a slow process, involving 1,500 work hours, and the end product won’t come cheap. The price is $275,000.

Our 1966 Microbus in New Jersey featured the treasured 23-window configuration ($100,000 to $200,000 for pristine, top-of-the-line examples), but Elbanna said it hadn’t started out that way. Kindred typically begins the restoration process with less-valuable models.

Climbing into the Microbus, one first encounters a nearly horizontal, original-type steering wheel (and no, there’s no airbag). The antique tiller represents the biggest hurdle to piloting these countercultural icons. What looks like a manual shifter is essentially an automatic, since the always-available torque in EVs makes a plethora of forward speeds unnecessary.

Behind the relatively plush leather-clad front seats, the bus features seating that wraps around a detachable table, and a row of storage cabinets. The passenger seat swivels to face the table, which would have made placement of an aftermarket center console (with cup holders!) somewhat difficult.

The bus took off without drama and proved a capable cruiser on the Palisades Parkway. Drivers in modern SUVs were probably astonished to see themselves passed by a Microbus. The Grayback electric drivetrain (named after a submarine built on Mare Island) is similar in Kindred’s Microbus and Bronco, though the former makes do with just one 294-horsepower motor. That’s plenty of oomph for a Microbus, and with a 74-kilowatt-hour battery pack under the floor, the Kindred is endowed with up to 200 miles of cruising range.

The bus has little in the way of aerodynamics, so there’s quite a bit of wind noise, drowning out any whine from the electric motor. The vibration level isn’t too bad, but it’s enough to blur the small period-appropriate rearview mirrors.

The driver sits right over the front wheels, with no crumple zone or hood to impede, so the view forward is excellent, as is the maneuverability, but a major focus on occupant safety was in the future when this bus was made.

The original bus, with a lot of weight in the rear, tended to oversteer, but having the battery pack underneath in the Kindred version helps matters considerably. It’s no sports car, but it’s fun to drive for errands.

And that’s where Clark sees his market.

“The vast majority will be used for buzzing around town, going to the beach or visiting the vacation home with the grandkids,” he said. Women are well represented among the buyers, he added.

Of course, Volkswagen has the retro ID. Buzz, which is off to a slow start in the U.S. market. With updated but evocative styling in a long-wheelbase, three-row version with available all-wheel drive, the Buzz that went on sale in the American market in 2024 can zoom to 60 mph in as little as six seconds. But the long-anticipated electric bus experienced many delays reaching the market and arrived with a daunting $59,995 starting price. (Kindred’s mortgagelike cost may make VW’s price tag easier to swallow.)

Volkswagen skipped the 2026 model year for the U.S. owing to excess inventory, but it is planning to come back in 2027 for the 2028 model year with Tesla’s NACS charging onboard. There will also be a “Tourer” camper version with an “overnight mode” to save battery power while camping (or is it glamping?), a foldout mattress and other outdoor amenities. Campers are part of the Microbus heritage. Other markets can buy cheaper ID. Buzz versions with two rows of seats, and utility configurations have done well in Europe.

Ryan Gavin, product manager for the ID. Buzz, said VW had sold a modest 12,000-plus vehicles in the United States and Canada since the introduction.

“We could not have had worse timing,” he said. “We started sales right after the 2024 election, which resulted in the loss of the $7,500 federal income tax credit for EVs and disinvestment in the charging infrastructure. Plus, there was a cultural vibe shift that didn’t favor our update of a super-happy hippie van from the past.”

In July, the VW Group announced a consolidation and restructuring that will cut as much as 50% of its global lineup. In the meantime, both of these electric Volkswagens will have to contend with a tepid U.S. market for EVs. Electric cars were at or approaching price parity with gas cars around 2025, said S&P Global Mobility, but the loss of that federal income tax credit was a blow.

A 2025 ID. Buzz, when experienced as a test car, had many qualities the Kindred EV lacked, including very quiet operation, all-wheel drive, copious storage (including cup holders), an airbag in the conventional steering wheel, abundant safety technology, and three-row seating with electrically operated sliding doors and rear hatch. But it lacked the quirkiness and virtuous economy that makes the original Microbus so charming. A more extroverted interior would help.

Gavin of VW said he welcomes conversion companies like Kindred.

“We love seeing what VW owners, both recent and far in the past, are able to do with their cars,” he said. “We relate. Our biggest challenge for this project was adapting an icon.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.