There is quite a bit of hype about this VW bus with an electric drive, the VW ID. buzz And indeed: quite rightly so. Why why why? We explain in the driving report of the 150 kW strong Pro version, which is available from dealers from autumn, from 64,581 euros in the configurator and is now in front of us.
One of the few things that the past has ahead of the future is the potential for transfiguration. In addition, the memory sorts out all unsightly experiences and events through willing repression or benign forgetting, which makes the rest appear all the larger, purer, more radiant under a magnifying glass of forbearance and the radiance of benevolence. A similar approach to the future is always misconstrued as daydreaming by all the grouches. Yet such pouty misgivings don't make life any brighter, nor does the future look brighter. And anyway, the prospects couldn't be any better than right now.
This is not only due to the area around Hanover, which doesn't overdo it with variety, but occasionally rises from its flatness, whereupon the road has to give up its straightness in order to curl over hills or between trees. Above all, the cheerfulness in this car is based in Hanover, the place where everything didn't begin, but where it really got going.
Because this is the ID. Buzz, the VW bus, with which progress, after a long loop, arrives again where it began in 1947 in a sketch by the Dutch general importer Ben Pon during a visit to and in the executive floor of the Volkswagen factory: with a lively boxy bus with rear-wheel drive. At that time it was the T1, the production of which started in Wolfsburg in March 1950 and moved to the new Hanover plant in March 1955. T6.1, T7 and Buzz roll off the assembly line there today. By the way: The electrification of the VW bus already has half a century on the lead batteries. In the early 1970s, engineers equipped several T2s with electric drives. Ten to 20 flatbed and panel vans as well as buses will have an electric motor in the rear. A forklift lifts the heavy batteries under the raised loading area of the panel van and flatbed truck. In the passenger bus that roamed around at the Hanover Fair in 1972, among other things, the developers placed the battery behind the back seat. In principle, the testing should be intensified after 1974 with 200 further prototypes, but after the end of the oil crisis even the potential customers - municipal utilities and energy suppliers - lost interest in the E-T2.
It doesn't really have to matter today that the T-models had rear-wheel drive until 1990 and the end of the T3. But it can make all the difference. Because the ID.Buzz is the first electric car with a past full of splendor and enthusiasm. We suspect there will be quite a few people who will buy it despite the electric drive and not because of it.And then there are those who have been waiting for just that - a family electric car, with plenty of space, enough range and an image of unenvious goodwill, which no other car in the price range just south of 70,000 euros can achieve. Yes, behind the wheel of the VW you think the country is determined to look forward to the future and was just waiting for someone to drive around with the ID.Buzz so that it could break the mold.,
There are few cars in which that alone Sitting inside is unique; Porsche 911, Cayman and Boxster are among them, the Land Rover Defender and especially a rear-engine VW bus. It takes three seconds to get everything in there - not like it used to be, but as if the very best of the past had made its way into the future a few decades ago and had just arrived in the present. Because VW Bus is what feels like VW Bus. To the perfection where the T7 fails to convey that feeling, the Buzz succeeds in giving it to you in abundance. That's right, the steering wheel should be flatter and you should sit directly above the front axle instead of behind it. But then you look ahead – past this touchscreen with its stupid operation. Toward a horizon stretching out towards you through the wide, low, widescreen pane.
The Buzz is ready to go when you get in, just turn the knob for the direction of travel to D, step off the brake and onto the accelerator pedal, and off you go. You let yourself be driven, not just by the power of the 77 kWh lithium-ion battery, with whose energy the 150 kW electric motor pushes you forward - like everything from VW's modular electric drive kit, on which the ID.3/4/5 based. But with a special flow. Because, no, you're not imagining it (if you are, don't do anything about it): You feel the rear-wheel drive, not only in the steering, which steers free of any drive influence - and now not exactly with an excess of directness, precision and feedback. You will notice, however, when the Buzz deflects slightly with the rear axle when accelerating and at the same time gently stretches the bow upwards.
The developers have tuned the Buzz to the heaving on bumps, which previously made a certain seaworthiness of the passengers seem advisable in buses. In the literal sense, because the tight chassis lets the almost 2.5-ton buzz with its 20-inch wheels jostle harshly over edges and potholes. But it has the high structure of the 1,927 mm high buzz firmly under control.,
And even the harsh suspension can hardly reduce the comfort of the journey. It's so nice and quiet in here, the hum of the electric motor only very, very whisperingly penetrates the front, and the VW with its extremely streamlined drag coefficient (0.285) for a box squirts through the wind.
The future? It's the good old days of the day after tomorrow
We've already covered almost 200 comfortable kilometers because it's so nice to roam around with the buzz. The computer calculates 17.6 kWh/100 km as consumption, and we could drive a total of around 450 km before the battery is empty. With a maximum of 170 kW, it should be charged from five to 80 percent in 30 minutes.
We could now talk about the possibility of bidirectional charging. Of the 30 assistance systems, which now also include an active lane changer for the motorway. Via the removable buzz box between the seats, which above all blocks access to the wide, comfortable rear seat bench that can be moved lengthways by 15 cm and has variable backrest angles. Of the fact that a seven-seater with a longer wheelbase will follow in 2024 and before that a panel van with 3.9 cubic meters of loading potential.,
But the most important thing about the buzz is how cheerful it makes you. That you, when you get behind the steering wheel, look at the horizon and, full of curiosity and optimism, think about what's going to happen behind it. And: That you leave cheerfully, so that the future will be your good old days later.,
Conclusion
What drives the buzz? The enthusiasm of its drivers, their curiosity about the world, their thirst for adventure and, of course, the electric motor. Friends, the VW ID.Buzz is the electric car that your volt!
