There’s some really cool stuff coming out of China’s car industry right now. A 300-mph electric supercar, an SUV with a drone in the back, real sci-fi stuff, and some real sensible cars, too. Affordable EVs, range-extender hybrids, and new ideas that genuinely seem great. Case in point: China’s homegrown Ford Bronco gets a unique style of panoramic roof that Volkswagen really ought to have invented first. You’ll see what I mean.
While China does get some variants of the same Bronco we get here, it’s also getting an entirely different Ford Bronco. Called the Bronco New Energy, not only is it offered in both electric and range-extended hybrid models, it’s the biggest new Bronco yet, cutting a silhouette some eight inches longer than our Bronco four-door. Okay, it is a unibody vehicle, but that doesn’t mean it can’t wheel. The old XJ Jeep Cherokee was unibody and you see those things crawling through mud holes and up mountains all the time. Plus, the Bronco New Energy decided to meld the trend of rooftop tents into the vehicle itself with a proper pop-up roof panel.
As Autopian contributor Tycho de Feijter notes on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, this contraption is officially called the “one-click ceiling lifting camping set,”and it’s a glass panel that pops up tent-style at the press of a virtual button on the touchscreen. Featuring an accordion-style boot to seal out weather when the panel’s up, not only does it allow for extra headroom when car camping, but it can even be had with a complementary air mattress to complete the experience.
Ford Bronco EV for China has an build-in roof tent
Camping is popular in China. Ford wants to cash-in. The new Ford Bronco EV/EREV has a build-in roof tent. Ford calls it the “one-click ceiling lifting camping set”, with a glass roof!
With one click on the screen, the tent… pic.twitter.com/QyIqfLOdUG
— Tycho de Feijter (@TychodeFeijter) October 3, 2025
Although it’s probably possible to come up with a shorter name than “one-click ceiling lifting camping set,” this feature seems like a great idea that was a long time coming. Sure, the fact that it’s a transparent panel is novel, but otherwise, there isn’t much new about this arrangement. In fact, it was popularized in America by certain Volkswagens.
Flash back more than half a century, and the car camping vehicle of the moment was none other than the Volkswagen Type 2, or as just about everyone calls it, the bus. While the standard passenger model was plenty for ferrying long-haired youths to and from concerts, the cream of the crop were the Westfalia camper variants. Identifiable by their distinctive pop-up roof elements, these vans had everything you needed for life on the road, and they became icons of the hippie era.
Yet when Volkswagen finally revived the retro image of the Bus with the electric ID.Buzz, something was missing. Sure, it looks like its 1950s ancestor and comes in fun colors and sparks joy, but where’s the camper version? Sure, any proposed camper variant would be expensive, but not only is the ID.Buzz already a $61,545 vehicle, Class B camper vans are seriously expensive as it sits. We’re talking $150,000-and-up for most models, a price bracket in which a factory-built ID.Buzz stands a fighting chance. But no, that’s not happening. Sure, some companies have pitched aftermarket conversions, but some level of first-party approval would really make ownership and operation easier.
Instead, Ford beat Volkswagen to the punch with a modernization of a great idea. If the people want to get outdoorsy, let them do just that. Hey, since Ford has that deal with Volkswagen for models like the VW-based European-market Explorer EV and Capri, maybe there’s an opportunity to license out the tech.
Top graphic images: Ford; Volkswagen
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This reminds me of this thing here:
https://www.google.com/imgres?q=jetour%20t2&imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fjetourglobal.com%2Fdata%2Ftms%2Fwebsite%2Fhtml%2Fimages%2FcarModel%2Ft2%2FSandcar.png&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fjetourglobal.com%2FT2&docid=mw9wZXVYWs_F_M&tbnid=JSLRMliUwAltjM&vet=12ahUKEwj-jaGRvZeQAxVWYEEAHXPqK04QM3oECBgQAA..i&w=952&h=476&hcb=2&ved=2ahUKEwj-jaGRvZeQAxVWYEEAHXPqK04QM3oECBgQAA
Cheap copycat of the Bronco Sport, with more power, apparent durability- they set one on fire. But in the end, not so good aftersales.
In 10-15 years, I see these T2s will be in the junkyard. Even an older Tahoe or Suburban should have no problem outlasting them (let’s forget the engine grenades on the newer ones).
Yeah…. that looks totally worthless.
That pop top look incredibly small! Why not make a proper Westfalia looking one, while you’re at it?
It’s official. China gets all the car fun now
That seems… odd and maybe even unecessary. It doesn’t open up very far, and the peak height seems to be around the second row of seats. Do those seats fold up like in a Fit, so maybe a short person could stand on the floor of the car to change out of swimwear or something? I see the bed beneath, but why’d you need headroom there?
Looks like a solution in search of a problem. And imagine the potential for leaks and rattles over time, to say nothing of every single little electric motor and solenoid in new vehicles being a possible failure point: upteen motors in the seats, in the pop-top roof in this Ford, in the retractible door handles, in the air vents, to open the glovebox, etc… etc… etc… I just can’t imagine what it’s going to be like to own one of these after the warranty expires.
I had a pop-top VW camper. The peak height was where you enter the van and use the sink/cooktop. It made sense to put it there, and people my size had plenty of headroom left over too. It also endured a fairly severe hailstorm in Montana w/o issue. To the best of my recollection, it never leaked either.
This isn’t that.
Alright, curmudgeon out.
Good points severe weather would damage this like most soft top convertibles
Waiting for VW to be VW, is like waiting for Godot.
My ex had that exact same green camper from ad (1977) with a 2.0L from a 914. We sold it when we had kids but it was a very cool tiny camper.
I had a ’79 that I bought in Brooklyn for something like three grand. Me and a pal drove it from New York, to Alaska, to San Diego, and back to New York one glorious summer. Except for old wiring making it hard to start until we wired a new switch taped to the steering column with some speaker wire back to the starter, and a melted catalytic converter, it was bulletproof. We ate so much ramen and peanut butter and honey sammiches.
Sorry these poptop roofs are okay to look at but totally garbage. Do they give you more headroom? Certainly, as long as you stand in one place and don’t try to move. So pray tell what is the advantage of a popup roof that only allows you to stand up in one spot, and only look at the tent material that makes up the poptop? And given how they set it up over the bed, where you won’t be standing up. I say horrible design
They work on other vehicles really well (like the Westfalia mentioned) and you can sleep up there as well if you fold out the bunks.
The Westfalia starts out with some pretty good headroom. However sleep up where? I must have missed something I don’t see that top providing enough room by itself for anything but a triangle
https://www.theautopian.com/chinas-ford-bronco-gets-the-roof-that-the-volkswagen-id-buzz-should-have/comment-page-1/#comment-776165
Check my link here.
Also plenty of stuff online. Google “westfalia volkswagon top bunk” check youtube etc.
Link doesn’t work
Works for me. Just google “westfalia VW top bunk”. there’s about 40cm height at the short edge of the wedge where you put your feet and about 1meter where you put your feet.
*1m for headroom on the bunk
Yet more proof that the US market is secondary to Ford.
I don’t know why a pop up top like a pop up camper isn’t far better as long as it is closed while driving
There was a rare conversion van style XJ that had this roof setup as well.
Are you thinking of these? Though, not an XJ… https://ursaminorcampers.com/pages/camper-sales-page
No, I’ve seen one based on an XJ.
The Bronco and Sport seem to be killing it here and I am pretty sure camping is popular in the US too. Based on the price in yuan Ford could probably pass along the tariffs and still beat the id.Buzz price selling this in the US. I am not saying this would convince me to buy a new Ford but it is more compelling to me than anything else they offer right now…
https://cdn.nwi-ms.com/media/hu/L/mc/STCVH926/model/exterior_camping.jpg?F=9216&P=ZE&M=QJ1&size=XL&background=full
VW has this. Isn’t it enough? (For something like the equivalent of USD 97,000 + VAT.)
Edit: but a Ducato diesel based camper, that has one of those shower+toilet combos instead of the stupid roof, would be cheaper.
Might need the stupid roof just to stand up in the shower
I haven’t tried it, but those large vans look to be tall enough for a man to stand up in them, and that would make it unnecessary.
“Bronco New Energy, not only is it offered in both electric and range-extended hybrid models”. WTF Ford? How about doing that state side before everyone else does and you play catch up.
This is actually mostly just an existing JAC (one of their JV partners) that’s been dressed up as a Bronco so it can be sold at legacy brand prices. It’s mechanically unrelated to any other Ford.
I wouldn’t write them off so quickly though, Ford owns the second largest stake in their JV partner Jiangling/JMC; think of it as buying their way into the Chinese market. Anything Jiangling makes likely has a high % of Ford DNA, and their lineup features the 2.3 Ecoboost pretty extensively.
JMC also has a JV with Isuzu pumping out Elfs and D-Maxes. If anything I’d trust JMC a lot more than BYD or Chery
Not at those prices. Maybe cheap knockoff copies
Isn’t it missing the point of the VW’s in that there’s no sleeping space above? (Am I crazy for thinking there is one in the VW as I’ve only seen a few pictures?)
I don’t think the VW has sleeping space up there, IIRC its to allow you to walk around standing up inside the van.
It absolutely has sleeping space up there. That’s why it’s so big. It’s a true roof “tent”. The Ford version is just a taller roof.
If we can only get the ability to insert pictures
It’s the same as my Westfalia VW T3. There is bunks in the roof that fold out and allow two reasonable sized adults a bed. Plus two downstairs on the rock and roll bed and you could even get a cot/bunk that sat over the front seat.
See this handy cutaway drawing.
Hope Ford shares this to other models. That is way better than a trouble-prone panoramic moonroof.