VW builds an electric office chair with a 12-mph top speed

Volkswagen’s long-rumored entry-level electric model is here, and it’s not quite what we expected. The company’s Norwegian division built an electric office chair with a surprisingly long list of features (including a rear-view camera) to promote its range of commercial vans.

We’re on the opposite end of the calendar from April Fool’s, so this isn’t a joke, though nothing suggests the chair will be mass-produced. Even if it remains a one-off, it’s a cool one. It rides on five wheels, it’s two-wheel-drive, and it offers a little over seven miles of range, which in an office setting is hopefully enough to last you for at least a week. If you’re in a rush, the chair can cruise at up to 12 miles per hour.

The list of equipment reads almost like a car’s. It features LED lighting with a “work party” function, a horn, a USB charger, a heated seat, and even a trailer hitch — we can’t make this up, folks. Volkswagen hasn’t released the towing capacity yet. Take a seat, buckle up, and you can count on a rear-view camera and 360-degree sensors to help you move around. The touchscreen embedded in the left-side armrest displays an infotainment system, and there’s a small storage space big enough to store a laptop as well as various documents.

Why? Well, why not? If you want a more detailed answer, the company explained that it has created Norway’s most popular workplace on four wheels for over 17 years. “Now, we have finally created something for all of you who are stuck in office jobs,” it concluded.