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The Volkswagen California Ocean Campervan features clever packaging and is now available with all-wheel drive and a plug-in hybrid powertrain, resulting in an official WLTP fuel economy figure of 313.9 mpg.
There have been lots of Volkswagen Campervans over the years and many have gained cult status. The latest iteration is the California Ocean with a plug-in hybrid powertrain and all-wheel drive. This makes it the most efficient Volkswagen Campervan to date, so is this the ultimate green staycation solution?
The Volkswagen California Ocean 1.5 TSI eHybrid 4MOTION has a 1.5-litre 4-cylinder TSI petrol engine mated with a 19.7 kWh lithium-ion battery, a 6-speed DSG automatic gearbox, and all-wheel drive.
Okay, now we’ve got the technical stuff out of the way, let’s look at the important details: its campervan kit. Within a 5,173mm-long vehicle, a LOT has been packed in. The most important things that you need to know are that the two rear seats fold down and a mattress can be pulled over them to create a 1980mm x 1080mm bed, and the roof pops up at the touch of a button to create a 2054mm x 1137mm bed. So the California Ocean has four seats and can sleep four people – with the pop-up roof bed being slightly larger.
You can also swivel the front seats to face backwards, creating a mini-living room, with its own mini-kitchen comprised of a decent-sized fridge, a gas hob, and a sink. It even comes with a Volkswagen-branded frying pan.
There are lots of other clever storage solutions. If you open the passenger side sliding door, a table can be set up behind the fridge, or this can be relocated inside the van, above where the fridge drawer opens.
If you’d prefer to sit outside, an awning can be extended from the passenger side. A table is stowed away under the downstairs bed, and two camping chairs are stored in the tailgate.
Other clever touches include a control panel for camping functions, various small cupboards, drawers under the seats, black-out blinds for the downstairs bedroom, windows in the upstairs bedroom, and there’s even an outdoor (cold) shower.
When parked up, you can power the California Ocean from an electric socket on a campsite and it has a water tank that contains up to 23 litres.
The main purpose of the Volkswagen California Ocean is to be a very cleverly-packaged campervan, so let’s be honest – the driving experience is of secondary importance. However the main news is that the California Ocean is now available with all-wheel drive and a plug-in hybrid powertrain.
All-wheel drive is obviously helpful for negotiating muddy campsites or wild camping terrain, although you may need to fit tyres with more of an off-road tread pattern to fully take advantage of the 4MOTION technology.
Equipping the California Ocean with a plug-in hybrid powertrain means that the fuel economy figure jumps from around 30mpg to the official WLTP figure of 313.9 mpg, thanks to a WLTP all-electric range of 54 miles.
The WLTP test takes place over a short distance of 14.4 miles and so if you drive a longer distance without charging (specifically more than 54 miles when the battery will be depleted) – which is extremely likely for a campervan – then the 313.9 mpg figure will plummet. Our real-world test was between Manchester and Abersoch in Wales, a distance of 124 miles, over which distance the California Ocean averaged 68.4mpg. This is an impressive figure for a campervan weighing 2,394 kg. However there is a catch.
The California Ocean can be set to drive in electric mode or hybrid mode. For a long journey you don’t want electric mode, because you’ll deplete your battery, so you want hybrid mode, ie. using petrol and electric power. But if you’re at a constant speed on motorways or dual carriageways, you don’t want to use the battery at all. So you can select an option to maintain the battery level and to instead use the petrol engine, which we did. However by the time of arrival at the campsite, all the battery charge had been used up, suggesting that the vehicle had managed the electric use based on the satnav (Apple Maps). This resulted in having no battery charge left on arrival, and there’s nowhere in Abersoch to charge apart from one Monta chargepoint, which EV drivers in the area said was the one of the worst chargepoints they had ever used (including taking a £200 pre-authorisation and then not working).
So the journey home had to be undertaken with no battery charge, resulting in the vehicle running on the petrol engine and being noisy, and returning around 30mpg.
Fuel consumption without any electric assistance won’t be helped by the vehicle’s weight, and this may also be a factor in the brakes seeming to struggle with slowing the vehicle down.
The Volkswagen California Ocean 1.5 TSI eHybrid 4MOTION Campervan has an official WLTP electric driving range of 54 miles, a WLTP fuel consumption figure of 313.9 mpg, and WLTP emissions of 21 g/km CO2. The projected total range with a full tank of petrol and a fully charged battery was 361 miles, which included 41 miles of electric range.
Real-world fuel economy over 124 miles using the petrol engine and all of the battery charge was 68.4mpg. This is obviously better than just having a petrol engine, which was proven by the same journey on the way home with no battery charge resulting in a 30mpg fuel consumption figure.
The California Ocean 1.5 TSI eHybrid 4MOTION has a maximum AC charging speed of 11 kW and a maximum DC charging speed of 50 kW.
The Volkswagen California Ocean 1.5 TSI eHybrid 4MOTION is available from £71,190 excluding VAT, or £85,395 including VAT. Our test car had options of retractable tow bar (£948) and Indium Grey Metallic paint (£984), taking the total price as tested to £87,327 including VAT. So this isn’t a cheap vehicle!
The Volkswagen California Ocean 1.5 TSI eHybrid 4MOTION Campervan is amazingly well-packaged. Within its 5,173mm length, it can seat four or sleep four, and turn into a mini-living room with its own kitchen.
The 4MOTION technology means that you can cope with muddy campsites and potentially venture further afield for a spot of wild camping, if fitted with the right tyres.
The plug-in hybrid powertrain means that fuel economy of around 30mpg for the petrol version can potentially be transformed to almost 100mpg or more for some journeys, and the driving experience is much better (quieter, more refined, more responsive) on electric power. But our test showed that the driver doesn’t have full control over the management of the hybrid system. This is one of the reasons why a fully-electric campervan would be preferable, and we look forward to the future arrival of the Volkswagen ID. Buzz Campervan.
In the meantime the Volkswagen California Ocean 1.5 TSI eHybrid 4MOTION Campervan is awarded a Green Car Guide rating of 8 out of 10.
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