It gets a familiar look and a choice of twotone paint options, but is available in more trims and layouts than ever before, with the top-spec Coast and Ocean models featuring a small kitchenette with a single-ring gas hob. It’s the first California to come with two sliding doors as standard, with one on each side of the van. This means that both sides of the van can now be used for entering and exiting the rear and that the kitchen – with larger worktops, a hob, a coolbox and a sink – is now accessible from outside for the first time. But the key interior feature is the addition of a new control unit with a 5.0 inch display, housed on the passenger-side C-pillar.
This can be used to raise the pop-up roof, adjust the interior lighting, operate the fridge and heater and check the waste and water levels. These features are also controllable through the driver’s smartphone and the touchscreen infotainment system. The California will be available with a choice of petrol or diesel engines but is also the first Volkswagen camper to offer a plug-in hybrid powertrain. The powertrain range opens with Volkswagen’s familiar four-cylinder turbo diesel engine with 147bhp.
The petrol engine is a turbo four offering 201bhp. Both drive the front axle. The PHEV variants come with Volkswagen’s 4Motion four-wheel-drive system and combine the firm’s 1.5-litre turbo petrol four with an electric motor and a battery. Five specification levels are available on the California: Beach, Beach Tour, Beach Camper, Coast and Ocean. Volkswagen describes the entry-level Beach as “essentially a Multivan with a manual pop-up roof”. It has six seats, meaning there’s no room for a bed below, so there are only two sleeping berths.
The Beach Tour has five seats that can be folded flat to form a bed, with a mattress included. It also adds rotatable front seats, a folding table, two folding chairs housed in a bootlid compartment, sliding windows and that new digital control panel. Volkswagen said the Beach Tour represents its “classic camper van”, adding kitchen elements such as a single-ring gas cooker, a cutlery drawer and more storage space. It also gains a 230V power supply.
The Coast drops to four seats but gets a larger, well-packaged kitchen, adding a fridge, cabinets, a sink and a second camper battery. The Ocean gets all of that plus fabric seats made from recycled materials (with heating function for the driver and passenger), an auxiliary air heater, climate control and a roof-positioned storage box. The new T7 California goes on sale in June priced from around £65,000, with the top spec plug-in hybrid Ocean likely to cost from £80,000 upwards.