I’m not sure I’ve ever been quite as frustrated with a new car. The hopes I had for Volkswagen bringing back the old Microbus were, let’s be honest, probably unrealistic. To me, even without the considerable burden of some bleary-eyed hippy culture nonsense nostalgia I was never a part of, the original VW Microbus meant something to me. It was a unblinkingly rational design that nevertheless somehow managed to wrap around to being a charming and quirky thing, full of character and usefulness and a lot of anti-establishment cheeriness. It was one of those vehicles that always made me smile, and every trip I’ve ever taken in one, as driver or passenger, has been one I look back on fondly. So, yeah, expecting that degree of fulfillment from any new car is probably unreasonable. And yet here we are. Volkswagen has resurrected the old Bus as the ID.Buzz, and there’s so much of it I do like, and yet it misses the mark in one such crucial way that it’s heartbreaking.
I think every time I write about the ID.Buzz I need to give a little rundown of all the other times I’ve written about it, because this car has had one of the longest and most protracted launches in the history of automotive letters. I first drove the ID.Buzz, in European short-wheelbase guise, back in 2022. Then, in 2023, I got to see the US-market long wheelbase version for the first time at another big event. And then finally, last October, I got to drive the long-wheelbase ID.Buzz in yet another “launch” event. VW always throws great events, so I’m not complaining, but it is a lot of build-up over two years for the release of a car.
Actually, I think you really can think of the build-up as having gone on for about 24 years, considering that is when VW first showed a concept for an all-new reborn Microbus, back in 2001:
And now, I was given an ID.Buzz to try for a week. I knew when I got one, there was really only one thing I had to do with it, since it was the one thing I didn’t get to do with it when I drove it all those other times: take it on an actual road trip. A road trip that involved multiple hours of highway driving, and without the highly competent VW support staff and route planners that make each press trip drive such a pleasant and worry-free affair. I needed to drive this thing at highway speeds in the messiness of reality, and see how it did.
The Road Trip Test
The reason this was the test that had to be undertaken is that I needed to confirm my suspicions that I’ve had in all my other tests of the Buzz: it’s almost a great vehicle, but the decision to make it a pure battery-electric vehicle has hobbled it, severely. I suspected this may be the case not because of the vehicle’s weaknesses, but because of its strengths. It’s packaged incredibly well, and as a result, this swoopy box on wheels has a vast amount of usable space inside, with each row – even the way-back third row – having great legroom and headroom and space overall.
There’s good luggage space, even with all rows up, and with the middle row folded and the rear seat removed, there’s cavernous amounts of space in there. What I’m getting at is that this thing is born for road trips. So I took it on one!
Not a massive one, but a decent one, from my home in the middle of North Carolina to the Spanish moss-covered charm of Savannah, Georgia. It’s a about a five-hour drive, or so. Or it should be, at least. It was even a pretty undemanding road trip, as far as these things go, with just two people and minimal luggage. The Buzz is, of course, capable of much more.
The Problem
But here’s the problem: it’s an amazing road trip vehicle hobbled with, frankly, a city car’s range.
The ratings for the RWD version – the one I had – are, officially, 234 miles. But that’s a combined cycle, and isn’t real-world road trip range. In my tests, in generally cold weather that required the heater to be used, with the battery capacity upped from the default 80% to 90%, and driving at speeds that ranged between 65 to 75 mph, because that’s what highway speeds are, if not a bit more, I found I really was only getting between 170 and 190 miles of range, often less, because the nav system is going to route you to chargers long before you get to the sphincter-pinholing range of like 10 remaining miles.
So, what this means, realistically, is that you’re stopping to charge every, oh, 160 miles or so? Sometimes 150? Two hours, give or take. That’s just not enough. And when you do stop to charge, it’s in no way as easy or quick as just filling up with gas.
This isn’t the fault of the ID.Buzz, of course, but the ID.Buzz is still hampered by the reality of the charging network in America. And in the context I’m talking about, home charging isn’t the panacea it’s made out to be by diehard EV enthusiasts. Sure, for day-to-day commuting, if you have a decent level 2 charger at home, the rich and profound shittiness of the charging infrastructure doesn’t matter so much.
But on a road trip? It’s a completely different story. Then the charging infrastructure matters a lot.
On a road trip, you need to find the fastest possible chargers, because the slow ones are slow, like you’re stuck there overnight slow. After I got back from the trip I tried to find a local charger by me, and ended up with a charger that was putting in 15 miles of range an hour, so, if I was coming in at like 20%, I’d need a good 8 or more hours to get a decently full charge.
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But there are fast chargers out there, including some baffling ones like these that were, for some reason, Mercedes-Benz branded:
I didn’t see any Benzes around, and otherwise it was a normal ChargePoint charger, but whatever. Most of the time I found myself charging for about a half hour or so behind a Walmart, almost always behind a stack of shipping containers. It’s not great, let’s be honest here. And it’s not cheap! The average amount I paid for charging the Buzz was $40 to $45 dollars, and I had to charge at least twice, there and back, with I believe at least one charge in between. It was more expensive than if I had bought gas for a combustion car.
Charging kinda sucks. There’s so many benefits to EVs, sure, but the charging experience sure isn’t one of them. I mean, sometimes you get to a charger, and the piece of shit has crashed, like your crappy work PC:
I suppose if I had the Tesla Supercharger adapter that’s supposed to be available for these soon, it could be a bit better, but it’s still nowhere near as easy and effortless as refilling with gasoline, and that’s the standard that needs to be met, fair or not.
Why I’m So Frustrated
So, what’s the flapjacking point of the ID.Buzz, then? The platform makes a ton of sense as a local delivery vehicle in its cargo form, no question. It’s fantastic at that. But the ID.Buzz, as it is, is both physically and spiritually meant to be a roadtrip machine. Something that turns energy into freedom! Freedom to go wherever, with whomever, and whatever crap you want to take with you!
And, don’t forget, this thing costs about $60,000, too. It’s not cheap!
And it’s great at it – in the one I had, the interior was one of the darker motifs, which I don’t like as much as the lighter ones with the brighter, more fun colors, but it’s roomy and comfortable as hell and the multi-zone climate control works fantastic and the audio system sounds incredible, and it’s the sort of space where you and up to seven of the people you love most can have a fantastic time, for hours at a time!
Except, of course, a good chunk of those hours will likely be spent immobile, behind a fucking Walmart.
The ID.Buzz has so many good things going for it! It drives great! I’m not kidding, the acceleration is terrific – unfathomable, if you’re thinking of the original VW Bus, like I was – and the highway driving is smooth, all that battery weight so low means the roadholding is great and the handling, for such a tall box, is surprisingly good. The brakes are terrific, which I can attest to because the front of the bus is not spattered with venison, which it would have been had the brakes been worse when that deer ran in front of me.
It looks great, too. Sure, that two-tone paint is doing a lot of heavy lifting, but who gives a shit? Let it lift! It’s working. It doesn’t look like everything else on the road, people turn and watch you go by and smile, and it’s still technically a minivan! A cool minivan! VW pulled off a hell of a feat by just achieving that!
It’s fast, roomy, useful, cool-looking, comfortable, it’s everything! Except you can’t fucking use it. Oh, sure, it’s totally fine for in-town driving and all that, but who cares? Again, this is a road trip machine. It’s almost perfect at that, except it can’t really actually do it.
Ugh, it makes me so frustrated. It’s like if scientists managed to clone Leonardo DaVinci, and he looks and sounds just like the real DaVinci and then they add, oh yeah, one thing though, he can’t actually paint or draw. But other than that, look, DaVinci!
There’s A Way To Fix This
What’s even more frustrating is the fact that this could be a solvable problem. If the ID.Buzz was a hybrid or had a range extender, it would change everything. A Buzz with a range extender – perhaps like what VW will be putting in the new Scout – would transform this into an absolutely fantastic machine.
And it could be possible! I mean, just look:
The battery pack could be reduced in size a bit, a combustion engine could be placed in the freed-up volume, maybe an inline engine turned flat or perhaps a flat horizontally-opposed engine, the fuel tank could go up front – why is this looking familar?
Oh, right.
Still, you get the idea. A range-extended ID.Buzz should be possible, especially now that VW has committed to making range-extended EVs with the Scout. A range-extended Buzz means that it could be a fantastic all-EV day-to-day car, and then when road trip time comes, it can drive and cruise with the gleeful abandon of anyone with a gasoline-fueled car.
But that’s not what we have. Thanks in part to the lingering stigmas of Dieselgate, the ID.Buzz is a wonderful vehicle hamstrung by situations and politics and events and circumstances beyond its control. To make it a range-extended EV/hybrid would solve all these issues. But, as it stands at the moment, the ID.Buzz leaves me feeling sad.
Sad about not just what could have been, but what almost is. VW needs to look critically at the Buzz and finish the job, the right way. They have all the pieces, they just need to put them together. They’re so close, and want this to work. I really do.
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Only Torch would propose ICEifying an EV by putting the engine under the rear seats and the gas tank in the front crumple zone, which is the exact opposite of how every normal ICE car does it.
I really, *realllly* wanna like this.
It’s a no go if we can’t make a 180 mile round trip to see the grandkids.
Plus it costs too much and you **KNOW** VW dealers are gonna go with the BOHICA pricing algorithm.
This would work pretty well on an island like Oahu. I think I would be able to drive around the island on one charge. My wife has a ‘22 electric Mini Cooper with a range of 120 miles. Works fine as a commuter.
It’s funny because VW had the mandated opportunity to create an excellent charging network and they managed to screw that up, which will cause models like this to fail.
The plastic grille-styled front bumper is ridiculous. It doesn’t even look good.
Other than that, it’s a very comfortable electric minivan that slightly resembles the old Transporter/Kombi/Bus/Station Wagon. Only the paint job is (sort of) carried over. They waited way too long to bring this to market, and the price is too high considering what can be bought for ten or twenty or thirty thousand less. For families with lots of kids, the difference in price can buy a lot of groceries, clothes and a trip or two to Disney World.
A hybrid with a large battery and a proper front end would have been much better.
Why does it look like it’s about to really enjoy stealing your lunch money?
Seriously, this is a borderline menacing face for something that is supposed to make you smile.
I can relate to the charging issues. I have an ioniq 5 (which the wife and I love) and it came with 2 years free charging from EA. The two closest charge stations to me, one at the mall with 14 chargers and one with 3 chargers are both down. It turned a 20 minute trip to charge into over a hour debacle.
This I feel is (a large) part of the problem that turns people off EVs. Anyone who currently has an EV and charges it at home realizes that years of free EV charging is pretty much irrelevant 99% of the time, it’s a nice benny only when actually going far enough to use up the (generally ample in the case of the Ioniq5’s) range. It IS useful for someone who can’t charge at home, but then as soon as the charging infrastructure that is “free” doesn’t work, well, the price is irrelevant. And you’re going to dislike the EV or at least the EV experience due to something beyond the car’s own control.
I am curious though – how close are your two closest Tesla Supercharging stations, are they working, and are there generally available stations? The Tesla app will tell you before you even get up from the couch to leave the house. If you get the Tesla adapter I assume you can then get the Tesla app? Tesla is far from perfect for a multitude of reasons but there is no real reason that VW had to make the charging experience such crap when they were in charge of the EA system. It just generates (more) ill will toward them.
90% of this is stuff we already know. Good to have a record of it, though, by a reliable source.
Choosing South Carolina to drive through was a bit slanted.
We need something a little more unbiased:
Take this from SoCal to the Grand Canyon in Summer:
From Union Station, you can’t even get to Needles.
Stop in Barstow, 115 miles, refill.
Stop in Needles, 144 miles, refill.
Note the altitude change from the Colorado River (495ft) to Kingman (3333ft), better stop in Kingman, 59 miles, as well.
Arrive in Williams (6916ft), 113 miles.
Good news is that it is downhill to the River on the way back. Maybe no need to stop in Kingman.
Versus, say, my Lexus hybrid. Stopped in Kingman, filled up in 5 minutes or so, no further stops, made it to Williams in about 6-7 hours.
Will await the forthcoming taillight essay.
Volkswagen shat the bed with this id. Ev stuff. After deseil gate (back in 2015, which thanks to covid for all intents and purposes may as well be 50 years ago instead of 10) they threw all their eggs in the ev basket, took forever to actually get the products out, just for them to be dated battery tech wise before they got to the showroom floor. Id.3 didn’t come to America, id.4 isn’t great, and id.7 (flagship sedan, because those sell like hot cakes apparently) is delayed again. Part of me thinks at this point someone at Volkswagen corporate read hardigrees morning dump about phasing out the Volkswagen brand and said “hey that’s not a bad idea but we gotta make it look like an accident” and here we are
> someone at Volkswagen corporate read hardigrees morning dump about phasing out the Volkswagen brand and said “hey that’s not a bad idea but we gotta make it look like an accident” and here we are
That’s the funniest thing I’ve read all day.
If only there were a network one could use, that would make long distance travel more manageable and the Buzz could just be your around home car. Like a really big EV. That goes really fast. Actually, let’s connect a ton of them together and move a lot of people at once! Then when we get to where we are headed, we could grab a rental or a taxi or something to get around. And walk! What if cities were even walkable?! How awesome would that be?!
I want to move to Europe…..
Dude, Torch, do you cable-tie a salt lick to the front of every vehicle you drive or something? What the heck?
After the hams as bumpers project didn’t pan out, he had to be creative.
10 degrees F today. How does this compare to the cold weather temps during your road trip?
One dash photo showed 32 degrees. But your temp may vary.
The frustrating thing is that VW has been making the perfect American road-trip van for decades now with the Transporter. They even call it the California. Give us that!
I have no particular objection to EVs and have driven a number.Your comments about the ID.Buzz are right on point. h we get solid state batteries I doubt that this challenge will be met.
I drive periodically on a 2400 mile trip each way from Canada to Arizona. Trying to line up chargers would easily add a day or even more to the journey and driving through remote areas will be a nervewracking experience if there were no handy charger.
I have some to the conclusion that the real value of an EV would be to replace my 21 year old Smart Fortwo. Overnight charging , strictly urban use, no long trips. I just wish we could get some of the smaller EVs available elsewhere.
Otherwise it a V8 for me across America.
Fiat 500e would be a good replacement for your Smart. Cheap too.
A used Bolt would also be a great and inexpensive alternate to the Smart but with realistic range for most daily user use cases. Your use case is though an extreme outlier, most (99.999%?) Americans (and Canadians) simply do not “periodically” drive 2400 miles between Canada and Arizona. Most don’t even have a passport to do so with 🙂 . Or (and?) they don’t only have one car to choose from. One could argue the same from the other perspective if one had a Ram 2500 and drove solo. You could do it but you’d more likely take something more fuel efficient. Heck, piling that many miles on a car it likely makes more sense to rent something and have them take the depreciation hit from the miles. The fastest way to drive across America these days is likely a 2025 Camry Hybrid LE for $28k and 50+mpg, you’re stopping maybe 4 times and peeing in a jar 8 times more on the way.
This is approaching Hummer levels of ridiculousness, only with the Hummer they get the joke. It’s like VW is trying to be serious about a family hauler with less than 200 miles of highway range and slow charging.
As for the hybrid idea, I get it you guys are all about range extended, but for the size of this van(and the price), they could’ve Chevy Silverado’d it to get near 400 miles, and 350kw charging. That’d work out to about 4 hours of driving before needing to stop and charge for a little over 1/2 hour, which isn’t a terrible layover after driving for 4 hours, and really if you driving 600 miles in a day(nearly the most I’d want to), you’re stopping once halfway, plugging in at night on a level 2 free at the hotel, rinse and repeat, do that a couple days and you just drove from NY to Miami, that’s not terrible.
Even if they didnt do a range extender, just doing an 800v architecture for faster charging and 300 miles of range would make it downright desirable.
They missed on the specs and are failing an otherwise great vehicle because of it
The idea of putting the fuel tank in the front underside makes me tense. All kinds of scraping and bashing happens there.
Indeed, If you look at the original T1 and T2 the tank is above the transaxle, Nice and safe (Bit of a pain to swap out though as it’s an engine out job), The T3 has it between the chasis rails behind the front wheels, Also fairly safe, I think the closest I can think of is the Beetle that has it in the front, Not really ideal but they do put a spare wheel in front of it at least 🙂
Here in the UK that 150ish mile range would be much less of a problem, I could easily be at either the east or west coast in that mileage or I could be in London or well on my way to Scotland. I would be wanting a break by that time anyway.