On Wednesday, Volkswagen used the South by Southwest festival to formally unveil the ID Buzz, the company’s forthcoming electric van. In the lead-up to that debut in Texas, VW gave Ars an hour with the gold-and-white show car to have a poke around.
You may have read our write-up on the car already, but we thought a video might be a better way to show off some of the quirky details of this new electric vehicle that’s causing a lot of buzz. (Not sorry.)
The ID Buzz you see in the video is actually a European-spec vehicle, which means it has the standard-length 117.6-inch (2,988 mm) wheelbase and seating for five. Europe also gets an ID Buzz Cargo, which ditches the second row of seats entirely.
Mechanically, the ID Buzz uses the same MEB platform (Modularer E-Antriebs-Baukasten or Modular Electrification Toolkit) as the ID.4 crossover. So the powertrain specs are identical—a 201 hp (150 kW) motor driving the rear wheels and an 82 kWh (gross, 77 kWh net) lithium-ion battery pack between the axles.
However, the US has to wait until 2024 for our first Buzzes, which will boast more length between the axles and a third row of seats. We believe the US will also see an all-wheel-drive option, and it’s possible there will be other battery pack sizes.
But with two years still to wait, it’s too soon to know how much it will cost or even its EPA range.
