VW unveils its electric microbus

Volkswagen will unveil the ID. Buzz, an electric iteration of its iconic hippie-era microbus, on March 9.

Chief Executive Officer Herbert Diess announced the date Thursday in a Twitter post that sketched out the contours of the new design, which draws on the lines of the original model.

VW’s original microbus — the colorful, bread loaf-shaped van that was a regular sight in the 1960s at music festivals including Woodstock — has a dedicated fan following. The German company previously said it plans to sell its battery-powered successor in Europe and the U.S.

VW has embarked on an ambitious push to dethrone Tesla as the global electric-car sales leader. The German company last month allocated $100 billion to EV and software development over the next half decade and has built a dedicated architecture that will underpin a total of 27 battery-powered models by the end of this year.