Back in the halcyon days of Woodstock, all the cool kids were living out of their Volkswagen Busses. Now that Volkswagen’s brought the Bus back to North America, it’s only fitting that a company has already outfitted it as a camper.
Peace Vans, an outfit out of Seattle that’s worked with Mercedes on Metris campers, has taken on the challenge of converting the ID Buzz into a full-blown camper. The company claims Volkswagen’s support in the endeavor, and has a series of options planned for different points on the camper-van spectrum.
The least in-depth option is a simple box that replaces the van’s third tow, adding a stove and sink to the ID Buzz’s features. This is sort of pushing the idea of what constitutes a “camper,” given that there isn’t really any kind of sleeping area, but it serves at least as a precursor to the next level of upfitting.
Which, of course, is “the third-row box and it’s the same but there’s a bed on top so it’s not.” The company claims that this more in-depth setup still only requires removal of the third row of seats, though in the renders it’s tough to tell whether the second row is still intact.
The final option from Peace is a full upfit, stripping out the ID.Buzz’s interior and swapping it out for a camper setup. If the company wanted to stay really true to the old Bus, it would mandate that buyers install this all themselves with only some local crust punks and a dog for help, but that’s a harder service to charge for. Instead, Peace requires that vans getting the full upfit are sent out to the company’s Seattle workshop to have the parts installed “professionally.” Whatever that means.
Buyers with cash to burn and hippie dreams to chase can now rest easy that there’s a cleanly designed camper conversion for their new electric bus. You might have to find another band to chase around on tour, though — I don’t think you’ll have much luck finding new Deep Purple shows.