- In U.S. kind, ID.Buzz is bigger, extra highly effective, with worth over $60,000
- As much as 234 miles of EPA vary, from 10-80% in as little as 26 min.
- No bidirectional charging or campervan as of but
The Volkswagen ID.Buzz is likely one of the most head-turning, attention-getting new autos accessible at any worth. And that’s even earlier than some folks know or care that it’s electrical. That alone is certainly one of a number of the explanation why it’s certainly one of Inexperienced Automotive Reviews’ Finest Automotive To Purchase 2025 finalists—however its enchantment and its significance to the market go a lot deeper than that.
VW struck a wise stability between retro and trendy for the ID.Buzz. It’s a smile-maker and nostalgia machine from first take, however spend extra time inside and round and also you’ll discover a deeper appreciation for it. Not solely is it quiet, pleasant-riding, and fairly nimble for a van; it additionally received’t drive you loopy with compromises for the sake of cuteness, in the way in which VW did with its New Beetle. The Buzz, as an alternative, serves up simply the correct quantity of retro-fun on the surface—particularly borrowing the face of the unique ‘50s and ‘60s air-cooled vans, and their two-tone seems to be—whereas its aspect profile and bundle itself says pragmatic Eurovan evolution and inside it’s completely trendy.
However what a lengthy, unusual journey it’s been. VW formally introduced in 2017, at that 12 months’s Monterey Automotive Week actions in California, that it might be bringing the I.D. Buzz to manufacturing, and we took that, on the time, that this is able to be a mannequin catching onto the waves of California VW Bus nostalgia. Seven years later it’s simply reaching that market after being accessible in Europe for practically two and a half years, and three and a half years after the U.S. arrival of the carefully associated ID.4 crossover. How was it not a precedence?
2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz
For the U.S., the 2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz has advanced, and it solely is available in a three-row kind, measuring 195.4 inches lengthy total and driving on a notably lengthy 127.5-inch wheelbase—about a 10-inch stretch versus the two-row model that Europe obtained beginning greater than two years in the past. An total top of 76.2 inches will clear most garages, and Its 6.1 inches of floor clearance must be simply sufficient for unpaved trails on the way in which to mountain climbing or tenting, however there’s no air-suspension adjustability right here or severe off-road claims.
With that, the ID.Buzz has extra energy within the kind arriving to the U.S.—282 hp in single-motor rear-wheel-drive kind, or 335 hp mixed in AWD kind with twin motors—and it will get a bigger 91-kwh (86-kwh usable) battery pack, good for as much as 234 miles of EPA vary. Highway-trip charging stops shouldn’t hold you ready very lengthy, with a 10-80% cost in as little as 26 minutes (though there’s no bidirectional charging as of but). The infotainment system is much-improved and comes with a reasonably well-integrated journey planner that may roll with adjustments of plans or new waypoints and well preconditions the battery pack for the quickest cost when wanted.
2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz
2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz
2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz
Our preliminary real-world driving outcomes counsel that the ID.Buzz can outdo these EPA rankings with a lightweight load and delicate climate. Don’t count on it to maintain up with all of as we speak’s sporty electrical crossovers; it drives heavy (AWD variations weigh practically 6,200 kilos). However with a quiet, well-damped heft, and in dual-motor kind its 6.0-second 0-60 mph time is on no account sluggish.
Inside, there’s lots of flexibility and a few nice seats sized and contoured for adults. However a detailed examination begins to disclose some cracks within the packaging. Its tall console between the entrance seats can raise absolutely out of the automobile, and a just-right seat top, loads of bin storage, and an ace electrochromic glass roof in high variations helps the ID.Buzz hit all the fitting notes for being an ideal various to SUVs. However these within the again seat lack storage for odds and ends, and the ID.Buzz might fail the Individuals’ Cupholder 101 course. Additional, with an uneven ground and a scarcity of true fold-flat third-row seats of the type you’ll discover in gasoline minivans—or the Lucid Gravity, to point out it’s potential in a three-row EV—it’s a blended bag.
2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz
2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz
2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz
2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz
The opposite query close to and expensive to us is that this: Why is it so costly, and why did it should be this manner? The ID.Buzz begins at $61,545, together with the $1,550 vacation spot price, and it ranges as much as $71,545 in AWD kind for the highest 1st Version.
The Buzz is predicated on the similar Modular Electrical Toolkit (MEB) structure because the ID.4 initially destined for 1,000,000 EVs a 12 months by 2025. Seeing that VW has likened its transition to EVs to when it needed to shift from air-cooled to water-cooled autos, it appears like a missed alternative of the grandest scale. Right here it’s, one of the crucial iconic shoestring, frame-and-canvas mass-market autos in automotive historical past, and VW is advertising and marketing the trendy iteration as a luxurious area of interest automobile, versus the likes of the Rivian R1S or loaded Kia EV9—when it may have been fairly the $45,000 mannequin pushed by a mom lode of VW equipment and conversions for dealerships to thrill over.
2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz
To that, there could also be many extra electrical vans on the way in which that permit such flexibility. The extra we ponder the place of the ID.Buzz within the EV market, the extra it appears like a turning level—one wherein, very similar to the counterculture the unique Bus got here to represent, it challenges the form of the long run.
Does the VW ID.Buzz outshine the opposite 4 Finest Automotive To Purchase 2025 Finalists? Test again Jan. 6.
