Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles is using Caravan Salon 2026 to offer a glimpse at two very different directions for the future of the California campervan – including an innovative inflatable camping system for the California Beach and the world premiere of its first fully electric California.
The California has spent decades evolving from a relatively simple camper conversion into one of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’ most recognisable lifestyle models. Now Volkswagen is exploring how the next generation could become lighter, more flexible and considerably easier to adapt.
At Caravan Salon 2026, the company is presenting two concept modules developed with innovation partner Stuff Bubble specifically for the new California Beach: an inflatable kitchen and a flexible bed system.
Alongside them comes an even more significant development – the ID. California Cruise, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’ first fully electric California and a model intended to lay the foundations for a new family of electric campervans.
Rethinking the California Beach
Volkswagen’s collaboration with Stuff Bubble brings together the manufacturer’s vehicle-development expertise with a company responsible for what it describes as the world’s first inflatable camping kitchen.
Rather than simply adapting an existing camping product to fit inside the California, the technology has been developed specifically around the California Beach and its vehicle architecture.
The result is intended to combine the convenience of equipment integrated with the vehicle with one of the traditional advantages of modular camping gear: it can be removed when it isn’t required.
That could prove particularly important for California Beach owners who use their vehicle as everyday transport as well as for weekends and holidays.
Instead of carrying a conventional permanent kitchen installation throughout the year, the concept points towards a California that can potentially change character according to the journey.
“This partnership gives us the opportunity to rethink the campervan,” said Stefan Mecha, CEO of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.
“Together with our innovation partner Stuff Bubble, we are exploring how modern lightweight technologies and modular concepts can be transferred to the California Beach.”
Mecha added that Volkswagen was deliberately looking beyond conventional automotive thinking for inspiration, investigating technologies and ideas from other sectors that could make camping equipment lighter, more flexible and easier to use.
An inflatable kitchen – but not as we know it
The most unusual element is undoubtedly the inflatable kitchen.
Stuff Bubble has already developed the principle for camping use, but the California project takes the idea further by tailoring the system specifically to Volkswagen’s campervan.
Inflatable construction has some obvious attractions in a vehicle where every kilogram and every centimetre of storage space matters.
A conventional camping kitchen requires a relatively substantial structure to support work surfaces and equipment. An inflatable alternative has the potential to reduce weight dramatically while collapsing into a much smaller package when it is no longer needed.
For California Beach owners, that could mean gaining useful cooking facilities for a camping trip without permanently sacrificing the vehicle’s everyday practicality.
It also represents an interesting shift in thinking. Instead of adding ever more fixed equipment to a campervan, Volkswagen is investigating whether some of that equipment can effectively disappear when it isn’t being used.
A more flexible approach to sleeping
The second concept addresses another fundamental campervan requirement: the bed.
Volkswagen and Stuff Bubble have developed a flexible sleeping system intended to make better use of the California Beach’s interior while retaining the removable character of the overall concept.
Again, modularity is central to the idea.
The California has increasingly become a multipurpose vehicle rather than something reserved exclusively for holidays. Owners may need a family car during the week, a load carrier on another occasion and a fully equipped camper at the weekend.
A bed system that can be installed or removed according to those requirements could therefore make the vehicle considerably more adaptable.
Taken together, the kitchen and sleeping concepts suggest Volkswagen is looking at a future in which California owners choose the equipment they need for a particular trip rather than permanently carrying a complete camping interior.
Volkswagen’s first electric California arrives
The Stuff Bubble collaboration isn’t Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’ only significant California announcement at Caravan Salon.
The company is also unveiling the ID. California Cruise, its first fully electric California.
More than simply an electric version of an existing campervan, Volkswagen describes the concept as the starting point for a future family of electric California models.
That makes its appearance particularly significant.
Electrification presents campervan manufacturers with a different set of challenges from those faced by conventional passenger cars. Range, vehicle weight, heating, cooking and electrical equipment all have to be considered alongside the energy demands of actually moving the vehicle.
At the same time, an electric vehicle potentially brings advantages to camping.
A substantial traction battery provides an obvious source of electrical energy for equipment when parked, while quiet electric propulsion is particularly well suited to vehicles designed around outdoor leisure and touring.
The ID. California Cruise therefore provides an early indication of how Volkswagen intends to combine those characteristics with the established California formula.
A new chapter for an established campervan
What makes Volkswagen’s Caravan Salon presentation particularly interesting is that its two headline developments approach the future of camping from opposite directions.
The ID. California Cruise introduces an entirely new propulsion philosophy.
The Stuff Bubble project, meanwhile, concentrates on something much simpler: reducing the amount of permanent equipment a campervan needs to carry.
Yet both ideas are ultimately attempting to solve the same problem – how to make the California more adaptable.
For a vehicle increasingly expected to perform several roles, that could prove every bit as important as adding more equipment.
Motoring Echo Top Tips
Thinking about a campervan? Consider how you will actually use it outside holiday periods. Removable kitchen and sleeping modules can make a vehicle considerably more practical as everyday transport.
Watch the payload. Camping equipment, passengers, luggage, bikes and water all contribute to a campervan’s total weight. Lightweight equipment can therefore provide benefits beyond simply being easier to store.
Electric campervans require different journey planning. Range is only part of the equation. Owners also need to consider charging facilities at destinations and the electrical demands of camping equipment while stationary.
Try before you buy. Campervan layouts can look ideal in photographs but feel very different in real use. Spend time testing beds, storage, seating and kitchen arrangements before choosing a particular configuration.
Motoring Echo Verdict
Volkswagen’s latest California concepts suggest that the future campervan may not simply be about squeezing more equipment into the same amount of space.
The collaboration with Stuff Bubble is particularly intriguing because it tackles two perennial campervan problems – weight and space – through equipment that can be deployed when required and removed when it isn’t.
If the inflatable kitchen and flexible bed system progress beyond the concept stage, they could make the California Beach an even more convincing dual-purpose vehicle rather than a camper that owners have to compromise around during everyday use.
The ID. California Cruise is the bigger long-term story, however. Volkswagen has now signalled clearly that the California name is heading into the electric era and, importantly, that this isn’t expected to be a single experimental model but the beginning of a wider electric campervan family.
One concept rethinks what goes inside a California. The other rethinks what powers it.
Together, they provide an intriguing preview of where Volkswagen believes one of the world’s best-known campervans goes next.
