Fine Art & Antiques

Design Moment: Volkswagen camper van, 1950

Beloved ‘hippie van’ is set to return as an all-electric vehicle with a sleeker shape

Production of Volkswagen’s camper van ended in 2013 but last month it was announced that a new modernised version will be put into production. Photograph: Julian Stratenschulte/EPA

Bernice Harrison's face
Bernice Harrison
Sat Sep 2 2017 - 00:00

Campervan tickets for the Electric Picnic sell out early – and the festival van for any shindig anywhere is the Volkswagen Type 2 camper van. One of its many nicknames is the “hippie van” not least because, as a moving symbol of counterculturalism, it evokes images of freedom and a slower, groovier time.

Its design was first sketched out in the late 1940s by Dutchman Ben Pon who saw the potential in the stripped down Beetle chassis to make something different, but it took until 1950, after a well-received launch in the 1949 Geneva Motor Show, for the first Type 2 VW van to go into production.

Numbers vary but it is estimated that upwards of five million camper vans were made in the 63 years the van was in production, first in Volkswagen plants in Germany and, when that ceased until 2013 in Brazil. Aficionados are able to date the vans by the detailing, for example a Type 2 with a split windscreen was made between 1950 and 1967; front indicators on the grille? Well that must be a van made after 1970 and the front bumper changed many times over the years.

Technological advances

Also, the engine sizes grew in power over the decades, wheel options broadened and other technological advances were introduced such as the introduction of the electronic ignition in 1978. The decision to end production in 2013 seemed puzzling given the vans by then newly acquired retro cachet on the ever-growing festival circuit.

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The news late last month that Volkswagen are to put into production a new version of the VW camper van came after a concept version was shown at a motor show at the start of the year. This new VW van will be different though – all electric and more sleek in shape. The news was announced in California at Pebble Beach with the company saying the location was to acknowledge the role the laid-back US state had played in the history of the van.

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