A range of 400 kilometers, five seats and a huge trunk. The Volkswagen ID.Buzz is the first family MPV with an electric drive, which is wrapped in a cute body with retro elements referring to the legendary T1 bus. The price starts at 1.5 million crowns, the first pieces are already on their way to customers.
When Jakub Šebesta, the head of the Volkswagen commercial vehicles section, says that the new ID.Buzz is unparalleled in the electric vehicle competition, he certainly does not mean just utility features. Those who think of family trips as preparation for moving have been able to choose electric cars in the past as well. For example, from the offer of Stellantis – starting with Citroën Berlingo and ending with Toyota ProAce. And then there’s also the Chinese Maxus Euniq 5, which doesn’t even have a utility background, but it does have a large interior space.
However, with ID.Buzz it is a little different. Standing here now lit up on the stage of the Hauch Gallery in Prague’s Karlín in lime green, he looks kind, nice, almost delicious. The automaker gave it simple curves, so typical for Volkswagen, which, however, have not yet been honored by the brand’s electric models. So now they are back and the successful interaction between the car and the traditional Volkswagen customer can begin.
“When I showed it to the visitors of the e-Salon exhibition, they were surprised at how spacious the ID.Buzz is. And they often said that considering the possibilities it offers, it is not even expensive,” says brand trainer Martin Pokorný.
After all, Jakub Šebesta also offers a price comparison with the internal combustion Multivan at the press conference on the occasion of the launch of the model – and both cars come out almost the same. However, it should be noted that the ID.Buzz is not intended as an electric replacement for the Multivan, in fact it is a car in a lower class. If it can be compared with another Volkswagen model in terms of interior space, then the Caddy is more likely to be offered.
The ID.Buzz, which is rolling out to its first customers these days, has five seats in two rows and a battery with a usable capacity of 77 kWh. The 204 horsepower engine is located above the rear axle and drives the rear wheels. At the same time, the Cargo utility version is also on offer, where the cargo area starts behind the first row of seats.
Jakub Šebesta does not want to give an unequivocal answer to the question of how long the customer waits for the car after ordering. “According to my experience, delivery of the commercial version is faster, in a matter of months. The personal version currently takes about a year,” he admits. “However, production is not yet running at full capacity, so delivery dates may change,” he says, adding that in the future the automaker plans to churn out up to 160,000 cars a year.
However, this year’s quota of 200 cars for the Czech Republic is almost exhausted. The first buses will thus reach mainly customers who ordered them in advance. The automaker launched it well ahead of schedule last July. “In this way, 130 interested parties decided on ID.Buzz without being able to view it,” states Jakub Šebesta. Another 45 units have already gone to dealers, where they serve as demonstration vehicles. Šebesta admits that if production had run faster, Volkswagen would have been able to sell 300 cars in the Czech Republic this year.
The current offer of ID.Buzzu can be described as an introductory one; in a few months, a 20-centimeter-longer version with seven seats will premiere. Production of a version with two engines, all-wheel drive and a 91kWh battery will also start in November.
Next year, those interested in the sporty ID.Buzz GTX with 340 horsepower and an 84kWh battery, or a 91kWh battery for the 4×4 version, will also be waiting. There will also be a six-seater version of the Buzz in the existing shorter body, where the seats will be placed in three rows of two separate chairs. And also an optional smaller traction battery with a capacity of 63 kWh, which will help reduce the price of the car.
