Volkswagen is turning to power plugs – and nearly 100km of electric driving range – in its fight against the top-selling Kia Carnival.
Australia’s first plug-in hybrid people mover – the Volkswagen Multivan eHybrid – is due in showrooms early next year as the brand expands its new family-car range.
The first shipments of the diesel Multivan are arriving in Australia now – initially in a single Life diesel specification – with plans for a higher-grade Style trim next year.
A petrol-electric plug-in hybrid version has now been confirmed by Volkswagen, expected to enter production for Australia in late 2025, ahead of a showroom arrival due in early 2026.
Prices are due to be confirmed closer to launch, but if the plug-in hybrid is offered in the top-of-the-range Style, the cost of the electric components – and longer list of equipment – could see it nudge $100,000.
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The diesel front-wheel-drive Multivan Life in showrooms now starts from $75,990 plus on-road costs, with an extra $3000 for a long-body model.
It will become the first plug-in hybrid people mover on sale in Australia, and arrives at a similar time to a plug-in hybrid Transporter van.
In Europe, the Multivan eHybrid 4Motion combines a 130kW 1.5-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder engine, 85kW front electric motor and 100kW rear electric motor for 180kW/350Nm combined.
A 19.7kWh battery is rated to allow 88km to 94km of electric driving range in European WLTP lab testing, up from a 10.4kWh pack and circa-50km range in earlier Multivan plug-in hybrids.
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The latest Multivan PHEV is all-wheel drive – replacing front-wheel drive – with the rear axle driven by the electric motor, and reportedly driven by energy generated by the front motor when the battery pack runs low, to ensure the vehicle remains all-wheel drive.
Now based on the underpinnings of the VW Golf and Tiguan, the new Multivan is arriving in Australia more than three years after it went on sale in Europe.
“There was a global rollout. Obviously it was quite a turbulent time, I would say through the COVID years and through semiconductor crises, so on and so forth,” Volkswagen Australia spokesman Daniel DeGasperi told media.
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“I think that’s been widely acknowledged by a number of manufacturers, and the rollout [of Multivan] was probably a touch slower than was our ideal.
“… On a number of fronts … those issues have been resolved – certainly in terms of Caddy production, which was an issue, and also in terms of the timing of these vehicles.
“Transporter, for example, is coming only in a few months time, when it was only in European showrooms a couple of months ago … So we are shortening going forward, we expect on several models a shortening going forward of the timeline between Europe and here.”
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