VW Rethinks Retro

Volkswagen Looks Back Again While Moving into EV Age

Volkswagen is working on an electric dune buggy concept vehicle that pays homage to the classic Meyers Manx.

Now, as VW prepares to introduce the first EVs on its new MEB (modular electric architecture) platform, the company is quietly developing a concept inspired by Meyers’ creation. If produced, it could be one of three retro-themed EVs, including the Buzz, based on the classic Microbus, and a five-door new Beetle.

The brainchild of Bruce Meyers, the Manx was a fiberglass kit car designed to use a shortened version of the cheap, ubiquitous VW Beetle chassis. With its light weight, the Manx was meant for desert racing and fun on the beach, and did that admirably in the swinging sixties, before Meyers closed down the business, exhausted from dealing with hundreds of companies offering knock-offs. The company produced about 7,000 kit cars over its run from 1964-1971.

The concept, now being crafted in VW’s R&D Center in Braunschweig, Germany, is expected to be unveiled at the Geneva Auto Show in March.

Meyers returned to business in 1999, and now offers several VW-based kits. In 2014, to celebrate the company’s 50-year anniversary, he showed off a Manx V with a bespoke electric platform, but it doesn’t appear to be on the menu today when you check the website at http://www.meyersmanx.com.

Maybe Volkswagen can build it for him.

[Steve Schaefer - Clean Fleet Report - 15 Dec 2018]