Volkswagen has been slowly teasing the all-new T7 Multivan for weeks now, and today it provides the best look yet and confirms a world premiere in mid-June. Previewed this time in the form of full-body sketches, the new Multivan gains a little sportiness while proudly displaying its DNA. The new MPV promises to be lower, wider, roomier and more versatile than ever.
It's hard to choke out the term "swept-back" when speaking about a van, particularly one well known for maintaining its boxy proportions over the decades, but the T7's A-pillar angle has exactly that effect, albeit less dramatically than in a ground-hugging sports car.
The swept windshield serves as the start of a sportier profile that's furthered by the roof spoiler in back. The van's nose gets shortened and rounded as compared to the last two Multivan generations, harking back to the face of the T4 and moving closer to the monolithic shape of the original T1 and soon-to-launch ID. Buzz concept.
Another heritage cue shines through in the sharply drawn character line that ties into the T3 and T1, in this case appearing like a wraparound extension of the full-width lighting signature up front. It combines with the trapezoidal surfacing down low to give the flanks a little more definition than the average broad sides of a van.
The new fifth-generation Multivan is the first to sit atop Volkswagen's Modular Transverse Matrix (MQB) architecture, benefiting from a longer wheelbase and wider track that promise to combine into a roomier interior to better support the van in all its daily duties, from moving seven people from A to B to sleeping and feeding the family as a converted pop-top camper van. Perhaps VW can even figure out a way to squeeze a bathroom in the next-generation California camper van – not an impossibility by any means.
Whatever task the Multivan is involved in, improved aerodynamics and a lowered profile promise to help it achieve better fuel economy while getting it done.
Volkswagen doesn't specify a hard premiere date yet, but we're counting on seeing another half-dozen or so teasers between now and then, so one of them will surely identify a date, time and place.
Source: VW Commercial Vehicles
