Commercial vehicles have to work across all latitudes and longitudes. Whether it is snowing, raining or the asphalt is glowing. On impassable country roads, in everyday traffic jams on the freeway or in the annoying search for stops in the city. Always on time, her specialties are daring overtaking, penetrative jostling and parking in the second row. This often leads to a driving style that makes few friends. The commercial vehicle division of Volkswagen wants to do a lot better with the new Crafter. Your The first in-house development in this segment after the end of the Crafter / Sprinter cooperation with Mercedes, the Wolfsburg have designed exactly as the customers want them. Result of the surveys: modern assistants on board, needs-based packaging solutions, thriftiness and, of course, a striking look.
The Crafter also finds creative and innovative designers at one of the northernmost points on his tour
VW has meticulously worked through this wish list with the new Crafter. Now it's time to get tested in the real world. The Crafter has to go a long way before its market launch in spring 2017. For four months. 42.000 km, through 30 countries. That is as much as driving the equator once. Constantly changing road conditions and climate zones that couldn't be more different. The specifications for the entire trip include visits from selected craftsmen, the group of people who use the Crafter most often and who, like car developers, always have a tendency to perfect. Iceland, with the northernmost point of the “Crafter2Craftsmen” tour, is giving the new transporter the cold shoulder with minus 8 degrees and thick snowdrifts. In contrast to Oli Karlsdóttir and his wife Anna María, the hosts on the island, who comment on the new look of the Crafters as “well done”, more modern and better suited to the VW family. Two years ago, Oli and Anna Maria founded a community in a former ice cream parlor, in which, after the financial crisis of 2008, craftsmen and designers can rent space for their workshops and activities for a comparatively small fee. “With a head full of ideas, we started with ten craftsmen to create innovations in Icelandic design,” remembers Ole and strokes his long beard, above which gray-blue eyes sparkle with enterprising spirit. “Where fish used to be processed and frozen in“ Íshús Hafnarfjarðar ”and the city's residents were able to store blocks of ice before there were refrigerators, 43 craftmen and women now work,” he says proudly. Freelancers and smaller companies have the opportunity to use rooms and equipment together, benefit from networks and work with one another across a wide range of disciplines.
Gudrun Borhildur is a specialist in creating useful things from recycled materials
One in the team is Gudrun Borhildur, who now delicately strokes a notebook cover made from bright irregularly grained fish skin. Piles of leather and fur jackets, tanned animal skins and fur collars release the view of the petite Icelandic woman only hesitantly. Like a whole range of artists in the ice house, she has committed herself to the idea of breathing new life into things that are no longer used or no longer pleasing. The result is fine, accurately crafted gloves from a used nappa leather jacket with an inner life of an old cashmere sweater and a fox fur trimming. The ingredients she has, like many other garments, the Icelandic Red Cross purchased. Each pair of gloves is unique, made of clothing, to which former owners Gudrun can sometimes tell a story. As with the bags hanging from the ceiling, the fabric of which was cut by a tent that has long survived as such. Equally practical and nice to look at are the small leather-binding binders that help bring order to the maze of charging or earphone cords. Clever solutions for everyday life, tastefully designed.
Keeping order is also easy in the Crafter with its practical cabinet construction
Like the cabinet system in the new Crafter. The present from today's hosts, a small amulet that promises luck, disappears along with the many other useful or tasty souvenirs from this tour in one of the numerous drawers in the generously sized interior of the new transport vehicle. Even pre-assembled cabinet systems from suppliers such as Würth, Aluca or Bott can be easily installed in the new vehicle. How practical in a country like Iceland, where hardly a day goes by without at least a bit of rain: long items such as ladders or wooden slats can be transported securely on an interior luggage rack regardless of the weather. The rest of the load should also not slip if it should. On request, there are lashing rails for the Crafter on the side walls, on the partition wall, in the roof and in the floor with the matching tension belts. The driver's suspension seat with the seal of the “Healthy Back Campaign” and adjustable lumbar support and massage function also fulfills one of the many requests made to the new Crafter. There is order in the modern cockpit. Numerous storage options in the cockpit itself, in the door panels and between the sun visor and the driver's cab accommodate the second tools that are now used in everyday work. You don't have to worry about charging your smartphone or laptop, which is constantly hungry for energy in the cold. There are three XNUMX-volt sockets, each with a USB port - there is also an audio connection.
To power the Crafters, there are three power levels available with 102, 140 and 177 PS
For the drive of the new Crafter, VW gives the choice between three performance levels of the further developed two-liter turbo diesel with 102, 140 hp or the biturbo charger with 177 hp. The power transmits either a manual six-speed gearbox or the new eight-speed automatic, which is subject to a surcharge. Depending on the load profile, it is available with either front or rear-wheel drive. All-wheel drive will also be added to the range soon after its market launch. With its electromechanical steering, the Crafter is extremely easy to drive through the serpentines of the Icelandic plateaus. Gradients are no problem for the 177 hp version, apart from the wind noise that the stiff breeze in this country brings with it, the acoustics remain pleasantly quiet. This is certainly also due to the optimized CW value of the new Crafter, the consumption of which has proven to be very tolerable at a good eight liters. If the journey ends for today in a city like Reykjavik with its 150 inhabitants, it will be easier in the future to use the van with a loading capacity of up to 0000, which is available in three lengths from 5,80 to 7,80 meters, three roof heights and numerous body variants. 18,3 cubic meters to be parked in accordance with the standards. With the help of an optional automatic parking system, the van or flatbed truck maneuvers itself into parking spaces that are only one meter longer than the vehicle itself. The Crafter also finds the vehicle itself. VW Nutzfahrzeuge is packing technology from the car segment into its all-round self-developed transport all-rounder to a previously unknown extent. It is being built in Wrzenia, Poland. The plant is also a completely new building. In addition to the principle of electromechanical steering, which is essential for automatic parking and joystick maneuvering with trailer operation, ACC, the radar-based automatic distance and speed control, blind spot monitoring and control are also included in the Volkswagen surprise bag from the passenger car department Range of sensors that make driving safer and easier.
The end of the tour is planned for the 10.März in Hannover, the day of the official market launch in Germany. The starting price for the basic Crafter with the 102 PS engine, front-wheel drive and the six-speed manual transmission is 33 677 Euro.
Text and photos: Solveig Grewe
