ID.Buzz, VW’s New Electric Minivan, Explodes While Charging in Finland

ID.Buzz’s official name is quirky, so it’s definitely calling for funny nicknames. VW might not even be against it, if the former did not allude to the essence of the bizarre incident that took place in Finland.

At the end of the holidays, it will be a year since Oliver Blume replaced Herbert Diess as head of the Volkswagen Group. During that time, the world’s second largest car manufacturer has undergone changes that, at least in part, return the emphasis to the development of internal combustion models. Nevertheless, electromobility remains a priority for the Germans. To their credit, it must be acknowledged that they are really trying, as evidenced by the upgraded ID.3. Its price dropped below a million crowns, even if only by a proverbial hair. It’s still a kind of madness, but at least VW is moving in the right direction.

Today, however, we will shine a light on the last member of the new electric party, the ID.Buzz model. The appearance of this minivan is to refer to the legendary VW Type 2, or the favorite vehicle of flower children, which many people simply call the Bus. However, while all Woodstock visitors managed to squeeze into it despite its length of only 4,280 millimeters, the novelty, which has grown to 4,712 mm, is intended for only five passengers. So, a few days ago, the Germans also came up with a 4,962 mm long version that has three rows of seats, but it is reserved only for the American market.

Like most of its siblings, the ID.Buzz has a 204-horsepower electric motor mounted on the rear axle, which is paired with batteries with a usable capacity of 77 kWh. With them, it is possible to drive up to 417 kilometers on a single charge, although it is more a wishful thinking of Volkswagen than a reality. He charges a whopping 1,593,854 CZK for a car with a maximum speed limited to just 145 km/h. Therefore, the brand still does not stick to the ground, after all, in the case of a battery drive, such an option does not even exist.

However, ID.Buzz currently has a bigger problem than an unrealistic range or an excessively high purchase price. Because of this, it started to be nicknamed ID.Boom, in Czech we could make it ID.Buch, because in Lahti, Finland, there was an explosion of a specimen connected to a charging station. The whole thing is surrounded by a lot of ambiguity, because the witnesses of the event described that during the charging they heard a loud bang and saw a lot of smoke, but there were no flames. The electric minibus left the scene damaged, but still repairable.

It was this fact that led the investigators to believe that the fault may not be the electric car itself or its battery, but the charging stand. However, before they could properly investigate the incident, the parked car practically burned to the ground. Collecting evidence will therefore be all the more difficult work. However, the Finns have to resort to it already because both the public and the car importer, K-Auto, want to know the conclusions. And of course, the city carsharing company that was its owner also wants them.

The fact that electric cars are a certain ticking time bomb is one of the reasons why we are so opposed to the political pressure associated with them. This is not to say that fires do not occur in internal combustion cars, but in their case, the origin of flames is usually either an accident, old age or neglected technical condition. However, ID.Buzz is completely new. Moreover, one that can apparently catch fire at any time – perhaps even a few days after the explosion or after the initial extinguishment.

Until everything imaginable is adapted to this risk, including the trouble-free entry of fire trucks into garages with limited ceiling height, electric cars must be considered a potential safety problem. And also as an ecological pest, as the chemicals released by burning batteries are highly toxic.

Fires or explosions of electric cars are rare so far, but the problem is what comes next. The new VW ID.Buch minibus, sorry Buzz, which burned down a few days after the initial explosion, could tell about it. Photo: Volkswagen

Source: Yle.fi

Petr Prokopec

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