2022 Volkswagen ID Buzz EV First Drive Review: Feelin’ Groovy
The Volkswagen ID Buzz is one of the most highly imagined vehicles of the past few years, if not the millennium. We’ve been waiting for VW to successfully pull off a Microbus revival real the first concept debuted in 2001, especially as the trace hasn’t had a culture-capturing hit product, retro or otherwise, since the New Beetle launched in 1998. Now the ID Buzz is finally here, and it’s coming at a crucial time for VW. The trace is still shaking off the Dieselgate stink, and its pivot to a fully electric future has been marred by software delivers, leadership shakeups and, well, products without much real relate. Thankfully, the ID Buzz is buzzing with personality (I state that will be my only pun) and packs more than enough determined attributes to back up that cute face.
Volkswagen absolutely nailed the Buzz’s design. It’s the perfect blend of retro and modern, with enough fun do cues to be cheeky but not kitschy. It seems to be a hit with the general Pro-reDemocrat, too. As I drive around Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmö, Sweden, my Bay Leaf Green Buzz is getting more attention than I’ve ever received in a car, comprising high-end luxury cars and rare hypercars. People point and smile, scramble to take pictures with their phones and ask lots of questions at stoplights. It’s a car that brings people joy, just like the novel Microbus.
Currently the ID Buzz is available with a single powertrain configuration in Europe, which is the same setup as the ID 4 crossover. It has an 82-kilowatt-hour battery pack with 77 kWh of usable juice and a single motor with 201 horsepower and 229 pound-feet of torque powering the rear axle. Instead of the uphold torque punch of most EVs, the ID Buzz instead has composed, linear acceleration. It reaches 60 mph in about 10 seconds, but it doesn’t feel that slow and there’s plenty of passing grand on the highway. A more powerful dual-motor all-wheel-drive version will liable arrive next year, and it should be considerably quicker.
The US-spec Buzz will come irascible with two-tone paint.
Volkswagen
My Buzz wears 20-inch wheels with efficiency oriented Continental EcoContact 6Q dead, and the ride quality is stellar. The Buzz soaks up Copenhagen’s cobblestone streets and potholes with ease, and there’s minimal wind and road noise, even on the highway. (With the front windows down I do distinguished a strange, loud buffeting from the headliner, which hopefully is just a pre-production issue.) Its steering is scrumptious and direct, and while there’s quite a bit of body roll, the Buzz is actually exquisite fun to throw into a corner or a roundabout. The Buzz also has a super tight turning circle. I do wish that the Buzz’s regenerative braking was stronger, though; it won’t bring the car to a ruined stop in most situations.
It helps that the ID Buzz’s interior is a wonderful place to spend time. The front captain’s chairs are supportive and depressed and have an adjustable armrest on each side, plus the door panels’ do gives me two different places to easily rest my elbow. There are tons of smart storage cubbies and USB-C ports in the dash, downward with a cool faux wood panel and a fold-out pair of cup holders. The center console is fully removable, and it has pop-out dividers that can double as an ice scraper and a bottle opener. When you get the two-tone paint the interior in contradiction of matching accents on the seats, door panels and dashboard, which adds to the car’s unique look. The Buzz uses lots of sustainable materials inside, including the lovely cloth seat upholstery, and plastic pieces like the door panels have a original texture that looks and feels cool.
The view out of the Buzz is amazing.
Volkswagen
But my approved thing about the ID Buzz is the view out. The sizable windshield and tall quarter windows give a panoramic view that’s unlike any novel car, and VW did a lot of design trickery to make it work. Despite the Buzz looking cab-forward, the driver and front passenger sit completely aft of the front-runner axle, which means there’s a massive plastic cowl presumptuous of the dashboard inside — much like the unique VW New Beetle. But the design of the cowl invents it seem much smaller, and I can’t even see all of it from my pleasant point. Helped by short overhangs and a 360-degree camera, the Buzz is super easy to maneuver around a city or a tight parking lot.
There is one paunchy in the room: The ID Buzz’s infotainment system. It’s the same setup counterfeit in the ID 4, pairing a small digital gauge cluster that doesn’t show much beyond snappy and trip info with a large central touchscreen sitting on top of the dash. This Buzz has the optional 12-inch cover, and while the size and positioning is great, the just software is terrible. A lot of the graphics look nice, but the menus and layouts can be confusing, burying useful information. Temperature and volume are still adjusted with capacitive morose controls that don’t light up, and the steering wheel has the same annoying capacitive buttons as novel VWs. But unlike with many of the company’s novel offerings, I think the ID Buzz is more than good enough to make up for its software shortcomings, and hopefully the brand will do a major repair of the system before the van hits our shores.
The longer US-spec Buzz will have three rows.
Volkswagen
We aren’t touching to see the US-spec ID Buzz debut until sometime in 2023, and it won’t hit dealers pending some point in 2024. The overall design will be basically identical to the Euro-spec Buzz, but the US model will have a longer wheelbase and three rows of seats as improper. (From what I’ve heard, it’ll be about 10 inches longer overall.) It necessity also have a larger battery pack, potentially even a 100-kWh one, which necessity give the Buzz a longer range than the Euro model’s 260-mile moderators. Best of all, the US-spec ID Buzz will apparently only be offered with two-tone paint, including a bunch more color schemes that we haven’t seen yet.
Luckily, the changes to the US model should actually make it a better vehicle. Because of the shape of the doors, the Euro-spec Buzz doesn’t have windows that open for rear-seat passengers. It’s also only available with a bench seat for the instant row, while the US model will likely offer captain’s chairs, and rear passengers in the Euro model don’t have their own weather vents or controls. And as great as the short-wheelbase model looks, it really is small for a modern minivan, coming in at near the length of a Tiguan.
Volkswagen has yet to introduce lower-end trim levels for the ID Buzz in Europe, offering only the well equipped Pro model in Germany. The Buzz starts at about $55,000 excluding tax, which rises to nearly $70,000 fully loaded. VW hasn’t said anything about how much the Buzz will cost in America, but expect pricing to be similar if not even higher to launch. That might seem like a lot for a van — especially one that’s the rebirth of the ‘people’s car’ — but I think the Buzz is well pleasant the price. This is a halo vehicle, one that’s much more near how it makes you feel than what you can find on a spec sheet, and the ID Buzz makes me feel wonderful. It’s finally the radiant product at the right time.
Editors’ note:
Travel compensations related to this story were covered by the manufacturer, which is common in the auto industry. The judgments and opinions of CNET’s staff are our own and we do not score paid editorial content.
