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.
2023 VW ID.Buzz First Drive: Why This Electric Van Is So Important For Volkswagen And For EVs Overall
The Volkswagen ID.Buzz I Wanted Was Doomed From The Start
Let’s Look At Some Cars From Petaluma And A Crazy Coincidence: Cold Start
The Retro Volkswagen ID. Buzz Starts At $61,545 And Overall, That Ain’t Too Bad
The charger running Windows is hilarious to me. Most embedded systems are already bottom of the barrel minimum viable hardware. Adding modern Windows on top of that is like making a BMW Isetta pull a thirty six foot fifth wheel camper.
But the ID Buzz exists only because it’s electric.
They have the Caddy and the Multivan, now both being sold with the updated PHEV powertrain found in all the MQB-based PHEVs. If they wanted to, they would try to sell those too in America.
Bingo. That is what frustrates me with the comment above. This car would not exist in any other form than the one it is in. Anything else is just a dream. It isn’t as if Volkswagen isn’t capable of poorly executing the design and manufacture of ICE cars.
Heyyy, mannnn. Chill out and pass the piiiipe, man. Picture in the fyuuuture, man, like in the year two thouuuuusand, man, everything will be greeeen, and everything will run on sunshine, man, and there will be, like, a big pink plug on every street corner with freeee electriciteeee, and the peace vans will go all the way to California on, like, one puff from the plug, man. It’s the fyuuuture, man.
Only way to read this comment is in the voice of Fillmore (George Carlin).
I am slightly disappointed your first move with a rebooted VW Microbus did not involve “rakes and shovels and implements of destruction” half a ton of garbage and “another Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat”.
On a serious note there is a market niche for good electric minivan. Unfortunately VW seemed to have spent more effort on stylish than good. Perhaps Kia will come through with the Electric Carnival.
I definitely want an electric minivan to replace my Odyssey. No more hunting for gears and me screaming for power going up the mountains. Luckily I don’t plan on replacing it for at least 7 years, so hopefully there will be a real option by then.
Sorry, Jason, but a front-mounted gas tank won’t fly in this day and age. And even worse than the Beetle, you’ve placed it right behind the front bumper. Sheesh!
It keeps things exciting!
We could improve the range further by eliminating those pesky crumple zones to accommodate a yet larger fuel tank.
Ferrari did it for the 126C. So if you can’t sell the thing based on eliminating range anxiety, you can with, “because racecar.”
Swing and a miss. Now I agree all EVs suck. I bet all the LA people left their EVs and drove their IXE Vehicle to safety. But
1. You are taking the Hippy bus on a non Hippie trip and asking it to do non Hippie things.
2. The original VW couldn’t hit 50 mph if you drove it off a cliff why expect it now?
3. Hippies were fine about driving short distance and camping out and playing their guitar to raise money for food and a tank of gas. How is this different than long slow charging?
4. Hippies were not big into metro cities. Take the I3 up the 95 to Arcadia CA right past Eureka where most of the old hippies and old VW vans are and let the hippies try it out.
If you need contact info for the newspaper or directions give me a shout. It is a beautiful place
You agree all EVs suck? Who are you agreeing with? (I don’t think Torch feels that way.) I’m an LA person who has been driving EVs only for almost 7 years and it’s been a big quality of life improvement — gladly planning never to have to drive an ICE car regularly ever again.
When I read the headline, I was sure the “except for one huge problem” was going to be the price. I was kind of right – the actual issue is value. Sixty grand for 150 mile range?? Hard pass.
As for the proposed range extender, you’re going for a backwards Pinto with the gas tank behind the front bumper??
I think a range extender could make this a viable product, as others have pointed out we’re a bit early in the technology development and this thing just isn’t there yet. Great packaging ruined by battery tech that isn’t sufficiently baked. (Maybe the exploded gas tank would help with that…)
Couldn’t anyone buy a generator and use it as a range extender?
Functionally you’d have to stop, unload the generator and then plug it into the car to charge it. Then pack it all up when you’re sufficiently charged. You don’t have to worry about finding a charging station, but it would be very inconvenient.
Somebody did put a generator into a Tesla, but I think he took out the back glass and added a partition behind the front sets to keep the CO2 at bay, so he could drive while it was charging. Again, not very convenient.
Couldn’t anyone buy a calculator and do math?
*two problems
Price and Range
Yes. Agree.
Unfortunately, the intractable issue (without making it an EREV or finding hyperdense battery tech or something) is the same as its most attractive feature – the boxy, retro design. It hearkens back to a past vehicle that, while astoundingly slow and without creature comforts, was inexpensive and made for casual, low-cost road tripping. But making it a big and unaerodynamic box kills road trip range and making it electric drives the price up. Someone considering a stylish commuter might put up with limited range if it was cheap enough to allow for a second primary car or rentals for road trips. But that’s not this, and it’s a hard sell to convince people to buy something new and expensive (and even at $50,000, this would be expensive – other minivans are pretty much top-spec around that price) with all of those seats for the whole family and face the prospect of driving the other car (almost certainly older, at least at first, and probably in a less road-trip friendly form factor) if Grandma lives more than 200 miles away. If this had the aerodynamics of a Tesla or a giant, blobby EQS road trip performance would be a lot better, but then it wouldn’t be a Bus(zz).
Kinda wish I was in a place where $70k was an ok cost for a car.
Preach it. Even if I could afford a $70K car , I think I might look at two $35K cars instead. Or maybe 35 cars at $2K each in true Autopian fashion
Yep, this is exactly the article I was expecting, and also precisely the reason that after literal decades of anticipation, I won’t be buying one.
VW buses are in my blood, so to speak. I literally came home from the hospital on the front seat of my parents’ ’73 transporter in ’76, followed by an aircooled Vanagon for a good chunk of my childhood. I got my own AC Vanagon in the early 00s, and have owned more Vanagons and buses than I can count in the years since. I currently own a ’79 Westy that’s been a faithful roadtrip companion since 2005, as well as a ’64 Deluxe Microbus. You get the picture.
All these years later, I’ve got three kids and a two-income household that also owns a modern VW. If I’m not the target audience for this car, I’ve gotta be damn close. And yet… they’re offering us no ICE option at all and less than 200 miles of range for something like $72k.
I live in OK, the land of 80mph (reality: 90+) turnpikes over rolling hills, with no extended family closer than an hour-and-a-half away. The IDBuzz just doesn’t work in any way without a range extender, and it really bums me out. Huge miss for VW. Huge.
If there was an EREV version of this I’d buy it tomorrow
Your road trip experience was because CCS fast charging is incredibly expensive, sited poorly and unpredictably working. Those MB-branded chargers (I’m guessing at the Buc-Ee’s in South Carolina) were 56 cents a kWh or so. The Superchargers across the parking lot were 36 cents per kWh. All the EV’s, including ones not from Tesla, were at the Superchargers instead of the MB chargers. Electrify America is similarly expensive unless buying a monthly pass, which knocks down the cost to slightly more than Superchargers.
I did a holiday road trip from western NY to Florida and back in a Tesla. Sites were generally convenient, working, well lit and about the same price as gas for our 25 mpg ICE vehicle. No hanging out behind a Walmart. I have a CCS adapter since lots of rural chargers in NY and New England are CCS. It made no sense to use a CCS charger this trip when the Superchargers were available, working and cheaper.
Long story short: Superchargers are way better than CCS chargers.
I’ll pile on with an off-topic rant. In all the reviews of the buzz I’ve read, the reviewer, including this one, raves about the space, including in the third row! But there are only two seats in that back row! I don’t understand why every single review of this **minivan** is able to award third row space points without at a minimum pointing out that all other minivans have three seats in the third row and this one doesn’t! end rant.
To be fair, it still seats 7, just with three in the second row instead of third. Yes most minivans have three seats in the back row but most minivans also only have two seats in the second row.
In many jurisdictions, an eight passenger vehicle is considered a commercial bus, and taxed and licensed accordingly. Also you are prohibited from driving or parking an eight passenger vehicle in certain areas.
That is why vehicles with plenty of room for eight or nine passengers are only set up for seven.
I’m fairly certain both the Kia Carnival as well as the Honda Odyssey are both sold with 8 passenger capability in every U.S. state and don’t require anything special.
The gov’t link below states that in the U.S. it needs to be 9, not 8, and crucially the transport needs to be commercial, i.e. done for some sort of compensation.
https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/registration/small-passenger-carrying-vehicles
Yes, but like I said “some jurisdictions”
San Francisco for example has signs all over banning 8 passenger vans
Also the traffic code
SEC. 7.2.87. COMMERCIAL PASSENGER VEHICLE RESTRICTIONS.
To operate a commercial motor vehicle with a seating capacity of eight or more passengers, used or maintained for the transportation of persons for hire, compensation or profit upon the streets or areas designated in Division II, Section 503, except as permitted in that Section.
Oh, and out of town friends saying they are only picking up the tab for lunch is enough to get you in trouble.
In NYC picking up a roll of film in my car turned out to be commercial use when I was a photographer. It’s amazing what can be commercial use.
Two things here. 1. Electric vehicles are evolving so fast that whatever you buy today will be obsolete in a year or less and if you spend $80,000 on one now your depreciation is going to be horrific!! 2. The original bus that we all remember was a Volkswagen {peoples car}. It was an affordable vehicle for its time. The new one is well above affordable to the class of people the original was popular with.
I think electric is eventually going to be the norm but we’re not there by a long shot at this time. Look at the evolution of cell phones and electric cars are barely past the bag phone stage!
Sure, a REV would be nice, but I also think this could be solved by better battery tech and charging infrastructure/pricing. However, both of those things are still a ways off, so yeah, they should have a REV option. However, I suspect it’s now way too late since that’s more of a platform development item and not an afterwish.
I enjoy the Autopian’s quirky and varying content, but the EV coverage feels kind of half-hearted. It seems like every EV article mentions the lack of EV charging infrastructure in the U.S. and the fact that road tripping in an EV would require more time than the same trip in an ICE vehicle. While the our EV charging infrastructure is not as good as it could be and should be, it’s serviceable if you have a Tesla or one of the newer EVs that are able to use the Supercharger network. Yes, charging takes longer than fueling, but unless you’re trying to cover a lot of ground in the absolute minimum amount of time, it’s not that big of a deal, especially if you use your charging time for meals and bathroom breaks. Also, why not talk about some of the advantages of EVs relative to ICE vehicles? To name a couple, they’re cheaper to operate and require almost no maintenance.
Until EVs overcome the few shortcomings they have compared to ICE cars, they’re not going to be adopted by the masses (unless the masses are forced to do so by legislation or extenuating circumstances). Doesn’t matter how small the shortcomings may be. They’re still there and the cost-of-entry to most competent EVs makes the disadvantages that much more glaring.
I don’t think they have to be better by every single metric in order to achieve mass adoption. They just need to be better overall for the person buying them. Obviously, each person needs to decide what “better overall” means to them. In my case, never having to buy gas and minimal maintenance are huge selling points. There are lots of other things I like about them, too. Also, I think the purchase price argument is no longer valid. There are plenty of EV choices, both new and used, that are comparable to ICE vehicles in terms of price and capabilities.
With all due respect to the editorial staff, I believe that the Autopian has a bit of a boner for EREVs without really considering that their cost will likely exceed what either a pure ICE or pure EV would cost for the equivalent vehicle in a useful format and price is a huge pain point in both formats currently, never mind the added complexity. Only one editor that I am aware of actually owns an EV and it’s the i3, an interesting machine but really a boutique one with such a small battery that the EREV is pretty much mandatory unless one wants to be limited to a VERY small area.
EVs are not for everyone or every situation, just like some ICEs are not for everyone or every situation. However, every year more EVs become available that work for more people in more form factors and more price points, with the current pain point being the (mostly self-inflicted wound of) piss-poor charging infrastructure which though has been proven by one manufacturer to work and work well in most areas for most users.
Nothing besides themselves and their own pride or pigheadedness stopped VW (or Ford or GM or Hyundai or anyone else) from implementing a high quality charging infrastructure by for example simply copying Tesla and renting space across the street from every one of their locations and coming up with a system that works. They however either could not or would not do so (and likely didn;t want to spend the money while hoping the government would finance it instead).
Now the majority of their EV customers will actually be staring at a Tesla logo for extended periods of time on most every road trip since that’s the only system that consistently and reliably works. I can’t think of a worse thing than for my customers to have nothing to do but look at my competitor’s logo every time they need fuel. And even worse, have them pay my competitor money for the privilege, now Tesla has their info and vehicle info and can market to them at will. That, my friends, is the result of desperation due to shortsightedness. That every other system bar Tesla’s didn’t work well was no surprise or secret to anyone but somehow the car companies themselves. The sad hilarity of Tesla’s owner doing virtually everything in his power to turn people off of his cars/brand is their only saving grace. Currently, anyway.
VW has the as of now unfortunate distinction of launching a new EV with too short of a range at too high of a price with a mission that seemingly would indicate a long-distance machine, which it simply isn’t (or at least not conveniently). To paint every EV with that IDBuzz brush is not accurate, just call the IDBuzz in current form the failure it would appear to be to most and move on.
I agree with everything you wrote. I would add that the new car dealership model we have in the U.S. is a huge barrier to wider EV adoption. They make most of their profits from selling parts and service. EVs require very little service and have relatively few consumable parts, so they represent a major threat to new car dealerships. Just like legacy automakers and big oil, they have been and will continue to do everything in their power to discourage people from buying EVs.
I guess I’m just thinking price-point from my perspective, a relatively cost conscious buyer. I have driven my 2016 Mazda6 since I bought it new in late 2015. The 6 has also been without a payment since I made my last one and divested Chase bank of their interest in the car in September of 2019.
The cheapest *new* EV in America is the Nissan Leaf – a small FWD hatchback with an outdated charger and limited range compared to other EVs. And it starts at 30 grand.
I also don’t count or include any government tax incentives, because I feel that it’s all but certain that the incoming administration will do their best to stop those. Counting on the rebates (or whatever they may be called at the time) to make EVs permanently cheaper is short-sighted at best.
My next vehicle to replace the 6 someday will be a lightly used AWD Mazda CX-5 or CX-50, both of which can be had for substantially less than even a well-optioned Leaf…and offer more overall driving range and usability.
EVs are still more expensive than ICE cars and for those that don’t want to just lease them or those that don’t want to go into exorbitant amounts of debt, that continues to be a problem.
I am also a cost conscious buyer. I never buy big ticket items new if there’s a good used alternative. In the case of EVs, good deals on used ones are out there, but you have to go find them, especially if you live somewhere that they’re still relatively unpopular.
This review is about what owning a VW EV is like, not a Tesla.
I dunno, I personally found this article very helpful. I’ve owned several EVs, and am familiar with their benefits, and the benefits and problems of different charging networks. The trade-offs between those things are extremely relevant to the decision to buy an EV in this era. I have been considering getting a nice van for a long time, but Torch is right: The use case for a passenger van with range that short is very, very focused. The charging infrastructure IS garbage, the charging economics of time and money ARE garbage, and those are likely to remain so. Nevertheless, this minivan sounds good enough that if it just had enough range, or if it just had a (fundamentally disagreeable, but necessary given our circumstances) plug-in hybrid or EREV or REV or whatever drivetrain, I would be buying one right now. To me, you need an anxiety-free 200 miles of range in western North America for a road-tripping machine, and that can be realized a few different ways.
I think the review of the van itself is good. My criticism is that it seems like every EV review on Autopian mentions that they don’t have enough range and that the charging infrastructure isn’t sufficient for road tripping. A quick Google search indicates that VW EVs will have access to the Tesla Supercharger network this summer, so that should make the ID.Buzz a much more attractive vehicle for road tripping, assuming VW has worked out the major bugs in the software. Having owned an ID.4, I would want to really be sure about the software before pulling the trigger.
I’m shocked that you didn’t mention what the “IQ LIGHT” on the charging door does, or is this being saved for a feature article?
It’s 2025’s Check engine light.
Even the most ardent road trips stay in town most days, and I think that this article doesn’t consider that minivans are great for other things by virtue of their packaging.
But paying $60k+ for a vehicle that can’t do even one thing that a substantially cheaper ICE vehicle can do would be hard to stomach for anyone except those with lots of money to toss away.
That 2001 Concept looks so good and, in my estimation, even production ready. I’m sure Adrian could provide better analysis, but it looks lighter too, even though it’s likely the same size.
I think the final product looks much better than the 2001 version.
Amen. Twenty-three years is tooooooooooooo looooooooooooong to develop a car on any planet, especially if the result is flawed by high price and short range. Signed, a serial VW owner, with three in the fleet right now.
If I had $60,000 to spend on an in-town/commuter EV and 3+ children, maybe this works, but that might be the thinnest slice of the pie if we’re talking about people who would be interested in a new VW bus.
This ID.Buzz is a complete Baba Booey’s first pitch, starting with the name and ending with production in a couple years because they just aren’t going to sell in any meaningful volume. And that’s coming from a long time VW owner and casual enthusiast.
Love the reference
So I get the appeal of the idea of EREVs, but it doesn’t quite make sense to me. You use it like an EV around town charging at home every night, check, makes sense. You go on a road trip and once the battery gets lowish the gas range extender kicks in and you go on your merry way and just refill the gas tank as needed… mmm not so sure. On the highway at 70-75 mph many EVs are still doing well to get 3 miles/KWh, which means you need a 23+ KW generator (range extender) to continue cruising at ‘normal’ highway speeds. That’s a BIG generator, and if you don’t want it to be unpleasantly noisy you’re gonna need to oversize it significantly (think CVT vehicle at max acceleration all the time). At that point the range extender is so substantial that the battery pack has to be smaller and what you actually have is a PHEV. I would argue that in practice, the EREV concept where you basically have an EV but with the addition of a smallish gas generator, just allows you to limp to the next charging station if your battery gets low. You still need charging stations, and you can’t continue cruising at ‘normal’ speeds with a depleted battery. It’s not a bad concept, but it’s still a significant compromise for road trip usage.
https://www.unitconverters.net/power/kw-to-hp.htm
It’s nowhere near as big as you think… you should assume however that about 10% will get lost to heat during the conversion to electricity.
Observing the ID Buzz and reading numerous reviews has led me to conclude the VW is truly just a BMW i3 writ large. It suffers from the same two Achilles heels: city car range and price bloat. Both cars are attractive, well-designed, economical rides using modern materials providing a premium riding experience for occupants. Whereas the i3 was conceived as a city car and, as a BMW, a higher-price bracket product, the ID Buzz at least appears to be a “real” car and is subject, at least in the US, to the perception that VWs are not top tier cars. VW has struggled to sell expensive, VW-branded cars here over the past two decades.
BMW recognized that short range vehicles suffer from negative perceptions of limited utility, whether accurate in practice or not. They added a REX model and larger batteries to partially overcome this stigma. It wasn’t enough to keep the i3 in production during what will admittedly be a long transition in driving thought as to what is practical. Also, the dreaded city car label speaks to Americans as a cheap econobox and they BMW was not this. Premium commuter is an oxymoron here.
VW ignored these lessons Granted the ID Buzz has a significant range advantage over a non-REX i3, but it still falls short of American driver expectations of reasonable range. As Jason pointed out, when you combine this flaw with the inconvenience of charging, the high price of charging away from home and the travel delays incurred, you wind up with a losing proposition. Compound it with a price that doesn’t fit with its city car functionality and, well …
A final thought. Low range doesn’t just complicate trips from a logistical standpoint, it also robs the road-tripper of spontaneous decisions. I can’t count the number of marvelous things I’ve discovered by taking a detour through an out of the way town or scenic road just because the mood struck me. If I’d been in an ID Buzz, id’ve been locked into maximizing range and sticking to a set trap line of charging stations so as not to strand myself in the middle of nowhere. Takes all of the fun out a road trip. And that’s it greatest flaw.
What about detours through out of the way charging stations?
Lol. Guess it’s all in the way you think about it, huh?
Excellent analysis, especially the side trips to see giant balls of string or in my case, birds and birding. Add in the absolutely stupid pricing and this thing will be a sales disaster. Not enough wealthy ex Hippie boomers left to do the heavy sales lifting this thing needs to be a success. I know about range hell, I have a Lexus RX300 that is our camper mobile and with the puny 14 gallon gas tank and 16mpg, some parts of travel in Texas and New Mexico were also sphincter-pinholing experiences which totally ruin the raison d’ etre of the trip.