A facelift for the ‘T7’ Volkswagen Multivan and California people movers has been revealed in Europe sporting a reworked front fascia and redesigned dashboard.
The biggest external change occurs up front where the Multivan and California gain larger LED headlights that are once again linked together by a plastic strip, which is illuminated on higher-spec variants.
There’s a cleaner bumper design with more prominent air intake openings. Indeed, the uppermost intake has a slightly happy disposition that ties it, somewhat, to the look of the new ID. Polo electric hatch. No changes have been made to people mover’s rear.
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Wheels range from 17 to 19 inches in diameter, with the base 16-inch rims now eliminated. The selection of paint schemes has grown to 16 on the Multivan and 24 on the California, with a Candy White solid/Grey Brown metallic combo, as well as matte grey, joining the range.
More substantial changes have been to the interior with the people movers gaining a redesigned dashboard that’s claimed to be made from higher quality materials.
The amount of shiny piano black plastic has been reduced drastically with the infotainment and instrumentation screens now living in their own separate pods. The infotainment screen has grown slightly to 12.9 inches, and comes with illuminated capacitive sliders underneath.
A wireless smartphone charging pad is standard across the range, and power output has jumped from 5W to 25W. There are extra USB-C ports for back seat passengers, and all outlets can now charge at up to 60W, up from the previous 45W limit.
For models with middle row captain’s chairs, these will now feature arm rests on both sides, while in eight-seat models the second row can be configured to face the third row.
The standard dual-clutch automated transmission is now operated via a wand behind the steering wheel rather than buttons on the dashboard. Plug-in hybrid models can operate their air conditioning systems for up to eight hours without interruption in stationary mode, regardless of whether the car is plugged in or not.
Interestingly, the UK will be ditching the Multivan name in favour of Caravelle. It’s unclear whether Australia will go down a similar path when the facelift arrives.
As is currently the case, the updated Multivan and California are based on the Volkswagen Group’s MQB Evo passenger car architecture, while the Transporter van is, essentially, a lightly redesigned Ford Transit Custom.