VW’s new electric California is going fully plug-in — and the inflatable kitchen is the wild bit
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles is heading to Caravan Salon Düsseldorf 2026 with a pair of camper concepts that neatly sketch out where the California nameplate could be going next. The headline act is the ID. California Cruise, the brand’s first fully electric California campervan, which will make its world premiere when the show opens on 28 August 2026. It sits on the ID. Buzz platform and is being positioned as the starting point for a broader family of electric campervans, with more derivatives promised progressively through to 2028. (stuffbubble.com)
That alone would be enough to get the outdoor-lifestyle crowd reaching for the camping stove. But Volkswagen has another trick up its sleeve: a modular camping system developed with Stuff Bubble, the inflatable-furniture specialists who seem determined to prove that not every camper conversion needs cabinets bolted to the floor and kilos of fixed furniture eating into payload. The concept is aimed at the California Beach and uses an inflatable kitchen plus a lightweight bed system that can be fitted, removed and reconfigured as needed. (stuffbubble.com)
The kitchen module is designed around the California Beach’s existing luggage-shelf mounting points and measures roughly 1,200mm long, 440mm wide and 475mm high. Despite featuring a closed water circuit, it weighs less than 10kg, and it can be split into sections so it can be used either inside the van or outside it. That makes it a bit more versatile than the usual fixed galley, and a lot easier to live with when the van is being used as, well, a van. (stuffbubble.com)
The bed system follows the same playbook. It uses a multi-layer, breathable construction and creates a sleeping area of around 2,000mm by 1,340mm. Volkswagen says it can be configured either as a 12kg double bed or a 6kg single, and claims the California Beach can accommodate up to four sleepers when the system is installed. In other words: the sort of modularity that makes proper sense in a camper, rather than the sort of “modular” used by people trying to justify three expensive drawers and a swivel tap. (stuffbubble.com)
There is a pretty obvious logic to all this. By stripping out heavy, permanently installed furniture, Volkswagen and Stuff Bubble are aiming to reduce weight, preserve payload and keep the California Beach useful as an everyday MPV when the camping season is over. The modules are said to be removable by one person and stow away when not needed, which is exactly the kind of practical thinking that gives a campervan real-world appeal rather than brochure appeal. (stuffbubble.com)
Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles chief executive Stefan Mecha says the company has been looking at lightweight technologies already proven in kite sports, paragliding and inflatable tents, with the goal of replacing rigid camper installations with flexible, modular alternatives. That is the sort of line that sounds like a concept-car cliché until you realise it might actually be the future of compact camping: lighter, simpler and a lot less committed than a traditional conversion. (stuffbubble.com)
The timing matters too. Caravan Salon Düsseldorf remains the world’s biggest dedicated caravan and mobile travel show, and in 2026 it runs from 28 August to 6 September. That gives Volkswagen and Stuff Bubble a suitably large stage for feedback before deciding how far to take the idea. For now, both the electric California and the inflatable kitchen/bed package are best seen as forward-looking studies — but they are studies with enough engineering logic to feel more like a glimpse of what is coming than a design exercise for the sake of it. (caravan-salon.de)
If Volkswagen can make an electric California that feels properly campervan-like, and combine it with removable kit that doesn’t punish the van the other 51 weeks of the year, it may have found something genuinely clever. Not just a new way to camp — a new way to think about what a campervan should be.
