Ventje VW campervan review: ‘work from home’ from anywhere - The Verge

Ventje vans convert from bedroom to office to kitchen to lounge and back again with surprising ease, allowing flex workers to "work from home" from anywhere.

Volkswagen might build the Transporter cargo van, but Frank Westland and his team at Ventje in the Netherlands are responsible for turning it into something special: a camper that lets you take your work or family off-grid for an extended weekend and still serve as your daily driver upon return. It’s “the only car you need,” according to the Ventje website.

That’s an interesting proposition at a time when flexible work arrangements implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have gone from temporary to permanent. As many as 38 percent of American workers are now able to work from home full time, according to a new McKinsey survey, with even more — 58 percent — able to work remotely at least part time.

As a full-time flex worker myself, I arranged a four-day trip in a Ventje (which roughly translates to “little guy” in Dutch) with my wife and dog to see just how adaptable this campervan really is. I drove it 600 miles (1,000km) on a mix of dusty dirt roads, the über-fast German autobahn, and the dense urban center of Amsterdam. I also brought my laptop and a Starlink RV internet kit along for the ride because I still had to show up for work — in Slack.

Afterward, I sat down with Westland and toured Ventje’s production lines to better understand how a company of 33 employees is able to create such a clever vehicle.

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