January 2016, the diesel emissions scandal hit the headlines. At the electronics fair CES in Las Vegas, VW is trying to win back sympathy. Historical images of the T1 Bulli as a Californian surfmobile flicker across the screen. Americans love this bus from the hippie era. But then the BUDD-e rolls onto the stage. The prototype of a possible successor to the Bulli looks like an angular VW Sharan from Korea: Lifestyle zero, emotions at rock bottom. Instead of the hoped-for liberation, there was a bitter lesson for VW: You don’t play with car icons with impunity.
The Wolfsburg learned quickly. A year later, they presented the ID Buzz at the Detroit Motor Show – since then, the retro design has inspired people all over the world. The car is celebrated on social media with verbal bows ranging from sexy to cool. And VW has been careful not to change the exterior of the production version a lot.
So at the IAA in Munich there is the well-known silhouette with rounded shapes, smiley faces and the characteristic two-tone paintwork. The fully electric microbus, which will come onto the market next year, is intended to build a bridge between the familiar world of experience and the high-voltage future. The planned Opel Manta e and the Renault 5 electrique also rely on the recognition value of their former bestsellers. The question is, however, whether all of the manufacturers mentioned can capitalize equally on history.
A recycled model name is not enough to build on past successes
You know that from furniture and fashion: Everything comes back, the sixties and seventies are currently in trend. But is it that easy with nostalgia? If this back-to-the-future would always be successful, why has the auto industry usually been careful not to trim its brand-new combustion engines to oldies? An industry with tough competition that lives primarily from technical progress. Apart from small car classics like Mini and Fiat 500: To what extent are tradition and innovation compatible in this rapidly changing industry?
Some strange pioneers of the connector revolution have given an answer. They have been gutting enthusiast vehicles for years and replacing the combustion engines and exhaust systems with batteries and electric motors. More than ten years ago, the first Beetles and Bullis, groaning under the battery load, roamed under the sun in California – a trend that has now clearly shifted in the direction of the upper-price class. Everrati began electrifying the 911 half an eternity before Porsche. In Italy, Totem Automobili packed a boned Alfa GTA E machine and batteries under the sheet metal. In England, Lunaz transforms Bentley, Jaguar and Rolls-Royce classics into completely redesigned buzzers. The list of heart transplant eye-catchers is long, but prices have long been in the high six-digit range. And because no start-up is able to meet the approval requirements for large-scale production, there are usually a handful of collector’s items.
At the beginning of the 1970s, the Renault 5 was initially designed as a cheap car. The planned successor follows on from the sporty variants.
(Photo: Renault)
So now the original manufacturers are trying their hand at the glorified past. The Renault-Plein-Air-e concept, inspired by the R4, on the French’s new electric platform found some viewers irresistible, and the electric Fiat 500 also skilfully combines the Forever Young design with the latest technology. But as a rule, the emotionally charged types fall victim to the need to save first and foremost. Models for the heart (coupés, convertibles, roadsters, shooting brakes) only have third priority when it comes to electrification. That’s why the e-buzz will remain the brand’s only revenant for the time being. Only when it is clear that all three Bulli variants People, More People (long wheelbase) and Cargo (transporter) meet expectations, does Wolfsburg want to consider other possible varieties such as Beetle, Karmann Ghia, Scirocco and Buggy.
Renault boss Luca de Meo has chosen the Golden Oldies R4 and R5 as sources of inspiration for future electric offshoots. One can also imagine a second life for the very first generation of Twingo. But that’s not all. On the basis of the EV architecture conceived jointly with Nissan and Mitsubishi, the reinterpretation of the R16 and a streamlined room-functional concept in the style of Espace I and Avantime are also on the boss’s wish list. In addition, the Alpine sub-brand is to be fully electrified in close collaboration with Lotus (part of Geely). According to reports, an encore of the A110 myth is planned as the first whisper sportsman.
This is what a new Opel Manta could look like from 2025. The crossover model has little in common with the flat coupe of yore.
(Photo: Stellantis)
Ford’s decision to adopt VW’s ID layout will bring the company various low-cost SUVs and crossovers for Europe, but not a real heartbreaker like the electrified Capri would be. The Ford Mustang Mach-E succeeds in making this leap in less authenticity, as it is neither a real Mustang nor can come up with the suggested driving performance of a Mach-E.
Is the name enough as a set piece of a former successful model to facilitate the entry into a new, still unfamiliar car world? This question also arises at Opel. With the help of Stellantis (16 brands, including PSA as well as the Fiat and Chrysler Group), the Rüsselsheim-based company wants to revive the Manta in 2025 – without a foxtail as before and without a manual gearbox as in the study, but with groundbreaking electrical components from the Group’s development kitchen. It remains to be seen whether it makes sense to convert the coupé into a compact SUV.
Brands can be meeting points with a glorious past. And hardly any other brand has drawn so much emotion from it for as long as Alfa Romeo. That is why the Italians dig deep into the bulging archive when designing future models. From 2025, insiders expect the rebirth of the GTV and Spider, with the GTV possibly being repositioned as a four-door coupe. Third on the wish list is supposedly the renaissance of the Alfasud, which is said to share the smallest electric platform with the Alfa Brennero CUV and the next generation of the Lancia Ypsilon. If the controllers approve of the project, the battery-powered Giulia will get a sedan sister model with the still unnamed Lancia Berlina towards the end of the decade.
Brands whose content shows a high level of congruence in terms of past and present do not need to contrive into foreign segments for the e-future. The original Mini designed by Issigonis has become larger and more mature over time, but even the XL Countryman is still more of a mini than an SUV. Nothing will change about that when the Chinese partner Great Wall Motors produces the next three- and five-door model in emission-free form from 2023. Side note: The E-Minis and their combustion twins are almost identical in appearance.
Smart has also landed an ally from the Middle Kingdom in Geely. Analogous to the Mini, the range will be fully electrified in a timely manner, expanded to include a compact crossover and the newly designed ForMore. In 2024, the fourth generation of the ForTwo will pick up where the Swatch Car left the first green trail in 1994. The world’s best-known sports car icon has its very own and unique tradition: Only the next but one generation of the Porsche 911 is supposed to finally renounce the combustion engine. Anyone who has maintained and developed such a solitaire for decades does not want to go backwards in terms of electrification. That, too, is a kind of retro-futurism.