Volkswagen have given us a glimpse into the future of vans with their VW BUDD-e concept van.

The BUDD-e concept vehicle is the first to be based on the new MEB (Modular Electric Drive) architecture with two electric motors driving all four wheels. The chassis has been developed specifically for electric vehicles so can house a larger battery that can store up to 92.4kWh of energy - enough to provide enough power to cover 331 miles under combined NEDC conditions.

Interestingly as mentioned above there will be two electric motors powering the wheels; one for the front axle and one for the rear. The front wheels will be powered by a 148bhp (200Nm) motor while the rear wheels will run off a larger 168bhp (290Nm) motor.

The motors off high-performance with a top speed of 112mph and can go from 0-60mph in 6.9 seconds. You'll also find that charging times have been reduced with an 80 per cent charge completed in just 30 minutes from a 150kW DC connection.

Voice controlled vehicle

One feature that has been revealed is voice control technology which is to be featured throughout the vehicle. The BUDD-e will recognise 'natural speech', so if you say "turn up the heat please" the system will turn up the temperature inside the vehicle.

Cleverly the system recognises where in the vehicle the requests are coming from so if you are in the rear and say "its hot in here" the vehicle can cool down the temperature in that area alone.

The BUDD-e is currently only a concept vehicle and is showing off some pretty futuristic tech however at some point all tech in the vehicles we drive today seemed futuristic so its entirely possible that we could see these concepts in vehicles in the not too distant future.