Can Volkswagen’s long-awaited electric van really reignite the, err, Buzz of the original Volkswagen Kombi?
It’s a long time since the Volkswagen ID.Buzz concept car broke open the 2017 Detroit motor show, and the five-year gestation period will end with first European deliveries of the biggest Volkswagen electric car so far from autumn. Powered by a 150kW electric motor and with 400km of range from the base 77kWh lithium-ion battery pack, the VW ID.Buzz will be available in two wheelbases and with five seats, eight seats or just two.
Price and equipment
There’s still no official word on when the 2022 Volkswagen ID.Buzz will land in Australia, where the German car-maker hopes to kickstart its EV push with the Volkswagen ID.4 mid-size electric SUV.
The all-electric Volkswagen Kombi successor is also firmly on VW Group Australia’s radar, but it won’t arrive Down Under this year.
In Europe at least, the Volkswagen ID.Buzz will come in both short- and long-wheelbase forms and – possibly – even in stripped out Cargo (commercial) form.
Just like the original Kombi.
It’s going to come brimming with everything Volkswagen has learned from its lukewarmly received ID.3 and ID.4 so far, although it rides on a long 2988mm wheelbase as standard.
The Volkswagen ID.Buzz is the biggest model yet to ride on the German giant’s dedicated EV platform, called MEB, and it is more basic than luxurious, in keeping with the original.
That means it will be more about comfort and less about overt ostentation, but it will still have seven USB ports, up to 12 inches of multi-media display area on the dashboard and multiple cubby holes scattered throughout the cabin.
One of those is a very clever inductive-charging hole for smartphones, angled down into the dash so it can’t fall out.
There are standard LED headlights, which can be swapped out for Matrix LED options, and there’s a bigger Volkswagen badge in the centre of the nose to match the enormous one the original Kombi had.
The stock wheels are big at 19-inch, but can be optioned up to 21-inch alloys.
So far, there is just one solid colour, alongside five metallic colours, a pearl colour and four two-tone paint codes on the option list.
Electric sliding doors are optional, and the car is permanently connected and receives its updates over the air.
Safety and technology
The 2022 Volkswagen ID.Buzz picks up where the ID.5 coupe-crossover – which could also come to Australia – leaves off, taking on the latest generation of 3.0 software to deliver a full-time connection to the internet and the ability to receive over-the-air updates.
One of the great benefits Volkswagen claims with this connection is the ability to join in to ‘Swarm’ technology, allowing it to ‘talk’ to other cars and infrastructure from up to 800 metres away.
It apes bird murmuration techniques to learn from and pay attention to the nearest six or seven cars on a highway to maximise its chances of not hitting any of them. And if the other cars, too, have similar ‘swarm’ technology, they can all do it together.
It’s even clever enough that the driver can teach it car-parking manoeuvres (though that can anecdotally be of limited value) for its parking-assistant system.
The VW ID.Buzz will initially come with a 77kWh lithium-ion battery pack, which will be bi-directional (if you have a DC wallbox and a home-energy management system), so it can charge your home or even office in a blackout.
It will be able to charge at up to 170kW, which is enough to charge the big Buzz from five to 80 per cent in half an hour, and Volkswagen is claiming 400km of range on the WLTP cycle.
One of its best new features is the ability to do all of its communications directly with the charging point, rather than needing apps or credit cards, with payment happening at the back end. So you just turn up at the charging point, charge, then drive away.
Powertrain and performance
There’s a bit in the 2022 Volkswagen ID.Buzz that has been seen before from VW, and the scale that delivers is the entire reason for the MEB architecture in the first place.
The electric motor, a brushless APP 310 permanent-magnet unit, sits on the rear axle, just like the Kombi’s flat-four boxer engine did.
The result is an astonishing turning circle for a van this size, going fully around in just 11 metres, which is the same as the considerably smaller Golf hatchback.
The MEB skateboard uses the same basic layout as the ID.3, ID.4 and ID.5, with a multi-link rear suspension and a strut front-end, but it’s uprated for the weight that the commercial-vehicle variants might need to tote.
The battery pack itself has 82kWh of gross charge capacity, but a usable 77kWh, and both smaller and larger battery packs are also planned.
A smaller battery will give more payload for the commercial variants, while the long-wheelbase ID.Buzz will have extra space that can be filled with more battery, if people want it.
Besides 150kW of power, the ID.Buzz motor generates 310Nm of torque instantly, and Volkswagen limits the top speed to 145km/h, but doesn’t claim a 0-100km/h time. That’s OK. The Kombi never made it to 100km/h at all, topping out at 75km/h.
Driving and comfort
The 2022 Volkswagen ID.Buzz is longer between the axles than the ID.5 crossover, but considerably shorter overall, in keeping with the Kombi short-overhang philosophy.
Instead of the 2766mm wheelbase of the ID.5, the ID.Buzz stretches that all the way out to 2988mm. Then, instead of dangling 1833mm of metal and plastic out either side of the axle lines, the ID.Buzz crumple zones make do with 1184mm, so it’s all about making space inside, and making it work.
It’s a big machine, but it can be made even bigger, with an extra 250mm added to the wheelbase to create the three-row ID.Buzz that will be sold alongside the standard unit, but only after a six-month bedding in period.
The luggage area is enormous, topping out at 1121 litres for the passenger version and almost four cubic metres (two pallets) for the commercial version.
There has been as much attention paid to the Cargo as to the passenger version, with a solid partition between the passenger and load areas, scratch-resistant materials, different interior panels and six tie-down eyes.
The load sill rising slightly, up 4mm to 623mm due to the stiffer rear springs it uses.
Volkswagen is also planning to farm out the production of high-roof commercial versions to external partners, but it’s keeping the (now confirmed) California camper van version (complete with a kitchenette, table and bed, but no toilet) to itself, in its own production system.
Unfortunately, we started out driving an unladen version of the Volkswagen ID.Buzz Cargo, and that’s never a machine organised at its best. It’s like judging golfers by how well they walk to their next shot.
It would have been helpful to test the Cargo with a load, because there was a lot of pitching and diving – slight longitudinal bucking over bumps, basically – and the cabin was a little boomier and higher in road noise than we’d hoped for.
That all changes in the five-seat passenger version, which runs softer rear springs to cope with the predicted lighter loads, and all of that slight discomfort disappears.
What emerges is a very competent electric van, with terrific visibility, enormous leg, head and shoulder room and enough cargo capacity to please Ikea.
There is always enough performance ready to go, whenever you want it, and it’s at its best in stop-start urban traffic, where it gives the choice of standard driving, which feels normal, and the boost mode, which regenerates energy with much more enthusiasm.
As with all the ID Volkswagens, the steering isn’t brilliantly communicative, which is especially frustrating given the lack of weight over the front axle, but it is meant to accommodate the many, rather than the enthusiastic few.
It’s a very quiet cabin, given its potential for noise from the sheer size of the box is amplified by the near silence of the powertrain.
The rear seats look harder and thinner in the cushioning than we expected, but they ride well nonetheless. There are captain’s chair options for the front, which we’d recommend for the door-side armrest alone, while the removable centre console makes for an entirely walk-through cabin.
There are other issues here, and while we tested the last prototypes, the clacking sounds from some of the cubby-hole lids felt shockingly cheap. Volkswagen insists a fix is in the works, so stay tuned.
Another issue is that the infotainment no longer identifies each tile with a colour. They’re all the same colour and that takes a second or two more to identify on the run.
Rating the ID.Buzz
The 2022 Volkswagen ID.Buzz probably won’t initially charm you, but you will almost certainly be convinced by its practicality, comfort, versatility and strength. Just like people were with the original Kombi.
It goes about its work in a completely unfussed way, and never seems to be found wanting.
For anybody coming from the Tesla school of thinking that every EV needs to beat Ferraris, you’ll have a rude shock. For everybody else, the performance of the ID.Buzz is just fine, delivering strength where you need it in daily life.
It charges quickly, rides well and is very easy to park, given its combination of a tight turning circle, a rear-view camera and a relatively short overall length.
Pricing will be the question. In Germany it starts at a cool €63,000, which equates near enough to $A100,000, so apart from battery power that’s the other big difference with the original Kombi.
Volkswagen already has Transporter and Multivan, and it won’t be keen to cannibalize them. But this is the one the world is moving towards, and we suspect even commercial drivers are going to enjoy the ID.Buzz – if they’re prepared to wait and pay for it.
How much does the 2022 Volkswagen ID.Buzz cost?Price: €63,000 in GermanyAvailable: TBCPowertrain: Rear-mounted permanent-magnet electric motorOutput: 150kW/310NmTransmission: Single-speed, rear driveConsumption: TBC
Safety rating: TBC
Keyword: Volkswagen ID.Buzz 2022 Review – International