Since 1985, the Volkswagen Multivan (often referred to as the Transporter) has taken the model set by the microbus and brought it ever forward into the present day. This year, VW will bring it into the future with its next generation.

Teasing the new, seventh-generation van, Volkswagen has revealed its new front lighting. With a Golf-like strip of light stretching across the grille and through the VW logo, the Multivan promises to be thoroughly modern.

Volkswagen hasn’t gone too high tech here, though. According to Albert Kirzinger, head of design at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, the most important part of making a successful Multivan is pretty low-tech.

“The core DNA is, of course, space. The new Multivan has space in abundance,” said Kirzinger. “Flexibility, usable flexibility – that’s what sets the Bulli apart, including the seventh one. Including the Multivan.”

From the beginning, says VW, the Multivan was designed to be an “automotive tool.” Although the Multivan tracks its lineage back to the days of the Microbus, or Bulli, the first van to bear the “Multivan” name launched at the Frankfurt Auto Show in 1985.

The T3 generation had fun features like rear bench seats that could be converted into a bed, a fold-out table, and more. As time has gone by, Volkswagen has added more and more features to the Multivan.

“With the best Multivan ever – more sustainable, more comfortable, safer, more intelligent, better connected and of higher quality than ever before,” writes VW. “With this new model the commercial vehicle specialists from Hannover will be transferring the DNA of this iconic vehicle and its associated lifestyle feel into the digitalized and electrified age.”

Although an exact reveal date has not been identified, VW says it will be revealing more and more details about the Multivan in the coming weeks and months.