After being late to the EV party, Volkswagen looks to be catching up in a very big way with its Modular Electric Drive Matrix or MEB platform. Created for the German carmaker’s new line of all-electric vehicles, they’ve shown its flexibility by plopping it onto a dune buggy body with the Volkswagen ID. Buggy.

In order to create this futuristic electric vehicle concept, Volkswagen looked back at its past, specifically the beach buggies from the 1960s. At that time, California was swarming with these dune buggies, most, if not all, based off the Beetle. Naturally, for the ID. Buggy, VW wasn’t looking to simply cut and weld an existing car, rather, they’ve showcasing the modularity of the new platform, specifically the placement of the high-voltage battery.



By integrating the lithium-ion battery into the MEB’s floor, a clean design language can be expressed. In the case of the ID. Buggy, it means a composite body manufactured from aluminum, steel, and plastic. The concept is powered by a 204-horsepower electric motor driving the rear wheels, but Volkswagen says it’s easy to convert it to an all-wheel drive machine. All it needs is an “electric propshaft.”

Oh, and thanks to the modular design, the entire upper body can be detached from the MEB chassis signaling that VW is ready and willing to share its EV platform to third-parties. In fact, Volkswagen, as a whole, plans to produce 15 million pure electric vehicles based on the MEB platform.



Moving forward, the German carmaker says they can help significantly reduce the cost of electric vehicles by deploying this platform to other carmakers. Aside from all-electric vehicles within the Group such as the Audi e-tron GT1, the MEB has its first external customer. This is Germany-based e.GO Mobile which says they’ll produce a small-series vehicles based on the MEB and an aluminum spaceframe.