Volkswagen’s van family comes apart as the Transporter legacy sinks under naming chaos, oversupply and painful missteps
Volkswagen’s onetime king of vans has reached a point where the legendary Transporter has lost both its identity and its competitive edge. Years of delay, platform patchwork and strategic paralysis have pushed VW’s commercial division into a corner where sales rely on discounts and model names that confuse more than they clarify.
For decades the Transporter was the backbone of German van culture, a workhorse, family hauler and camper icon in one. The real turning point arrived in 1990 with the T4, which moved the engine to the front and adopted independent rear suspension. T4 and later T5 models built a wave of success that kept the platform competitive for nearly twenty years.
By the mid 2010s VW missed a crucial train. Instead of launching a new generation it gave the T5 a heavy makeover, called it the T6 and kept selling the familiar hardware at a healthy margin. Development of electric and hybrid drivetrains was pushed back even as the market and regulators demanded the opposite. An electric Transporter was improvised with ABT, but the 32.5 kWh battery, a zero to 100 time north of 17 seconds and a price more than 20,000 euros above the standard model made it an offer few took seriously.
The most damaging blow came when Volkswagen ignored Deutsche Post’s long standing request for an electric van. The postal service built its own. VW lost a key partner and the Transporter’s hard earned reputation took a hit.
When the time finally came to design a genuine successor to the T5 and T6, confusion followed. The MQB based T7 pushed the driver 20 centimetres rearward, reduced practicality for cargo versions and effectively turned the vehicle into a new Sharan rather than the heir to the Transporter line. Prices climbed, space shrank and disappointment was inevitable. VW kept the old T6 in production until 2024, meaning the same basic model lived on for twenty one years.
The electric ID Buzz was meant to be a fresh start. Instead its high seating position, reduced cargo volume and steep entry price turned it into a niche product. A later, cheaper variant with a smaller battery felt more like crisis management than strategic success.
The sharpest identity crisis arrived through the Ford partnership. Volkswagen’s medium sized van is now essentially a Ford Transit sold as the T7. At the same time a T7 Multivan exists along with the earlier MQB based T7, all wearing the same name yet differing underneath. Production moved to Turkey, the styling carries a clear Ford flavour and price is no advantage. Buyers can have the same van for less by choosing the Ford.
The result is a trio of models, none of which satisfy Transporter loyalists or business customers. VW is tied to Ford’s production volumes, sales are sluggish and stockpiles are growing. The remedy is a desperate discount campaign, with vans marked down by up to forty per cent for both corporate and private buyers simply to move metal.
Volkswagen’s once exemplary commercial division has become a textbook case of how a brand can shed its identity through short sighted decisions. Rivals are not sleeping, and Chinese manufacturers are arriving with cheaper, roomier vans. Unless VW adjusts its course quickly, the Transporter name may soon survive only as a nostalgic reference rather than a living product family.
