VW reveals clever feature that means more space for new Multivan

Sometimes even something really good needs to be reinvented to make it even better. At least that’s the theory at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles with its hotly anticipated new Multivan. The company is aiming to make driving the vehicle easier and also give users more space, which could be great news for those who will end up using it as a base vehicle for a campervan.

In the next generation Multivan, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles will transform the gear knob into a switch and thus to reduce it in size so that the gap for climbing through to the back becomes even bigger. The technology behind it: shift-by-wire. That means electronic relaying of the gear change signals. With one click. The prerequisite for this is the fact that in future the Multivan is being equipped with a dual clutch gearbox, aka a DSG. That's because where there is no longer a manual gearbox, space for a manual gear change mechanism, gear knob included, is no longer needed.

The head of design at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, Albert Kirzinger, said: “Generosity in the interior. We have taken out the gear knob. We've even cleared the space in the middle, assigned it to the driver. The new Bulli will be an exciting product. You can look forward to it.”

Instead, a small switch is now sufficient. It is integrated ergonomically perfectly into the new instrument panel to the right of the steering wheel. The DSG switch is thus on a level with the 10-inch display of the infotainment system - on which, for the first time in the Multivan, a real 360-degree representation of the vehicle is also displayed as an ‘Area View’ (optional) in order to make parking and manoeuvring very easy. One floor lower, meanwhile, the conventional handbrake lever has also been cleared out of the way. From now on, the parking brake is activated electronically by button or automatically. And thus the space between driver’s seat and front passenger seat increases even more. So that you can quickly jump into the back to see to the children during a stop. Or to get something from the cool box. Or to use the new multi-function table from the back as a centre console between driver’s and front passenger seat. But that is already moving on to another story about the new Multivan.

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