After a second week with VW’s electric Microbus revival, we’ve confirmed what makes it special and what’s holding it back from being an easy recommendation.
Most weeks, new vehicles roll through our test fleet that just sort of pass us by. It’s rare to find a truly awful car these days, but a lot of them have homogenized to the point of being forgettable. They’re fine, they’ll do the job, and the world keeps on turning.
Then there’s the Volkswagen ID. Buzz, which refuses to be ignored.
After selling our long-term ID. Buzz a few months back, we got another week behind the wheel of a fully loaded Pro S Plus with 4Motion all-wheel drive. The verdict hasn’t changed much. The ID. Buzz is genuinely delightful, packed with personality, and an absolute joy to drive around. There’s just one problem that keeps us from recommending it without major caveats.
Under the skin, the ID. Buzz has a lot in common with its corporate sibling, the ID.4 SUV. Both are electric, both ride on VW’s MEB platform, both offer single-motor and dual-motor options, and both wear a fairly similar corporate face. If you boil it down to practical terms, you’d approach shopping the two as the Buzz effectively being a bigger, more practical, three-row ID.4.
And yet it’s not. Not even close.
While the ID.4 is ruthlessly sensible and solidly capable, you’re meant to turn and look at the Buzz. Even more than a year after its U.S. launch, people far and wide still do a double take, smile, and give a thumbs up when you drive past. From the happy-go-lucky face to the upright proportions and huge glass area, the ID. Buzz nails the sense of freedom that still makes the old-school Microbus a smile-inducing sight when you see one.
From nose to tail, there’s much to commend the 195.4-inch ID. Buzz. Overall, it’s about 8 inches shorter than a Toyota Sienna but gains that back in overall height at 76.2 inches. Headroom is abundant, and there’s still plenty of legroom across all three rows.
Our Pro S Plus tester lacked the panoramic fixed glass roof you only get with the now-limited 1st Edition with 4Motion trim, which carried a $71,545 price tag. Even so, the cabin feels appropriately spacious without it, thanks to the abundance of windows all around.
Cargo space ranges from 18.6 cubic feet behind the third row to 145.5 cubic feet with both rear rows removed. Fold the third row down and that space expands to 48.9 cubic feet, or remove the rearmost seats entirely for 75.5 cubic feet. While folks overseas can buy the ID. Buzz as a straight-up cargo van, the passenger version we get still brings the sort of space you’d expect from a three-row family hauler without feeling like you’re driving a school bus.
The level of technology on offer is also a major plus point. Unlike some EVs that have gone stark raving mad with screens, VW has exercised restraint. You get a modest 5.3-inch display behind the steering wheel with all your important driving data, and a 12.9-inch central touchscreen.
VW’s latest infotainment system is more intuitive and responsive than what we experienced in the original ID.4, even if it still isn’t a world-beater. The haptic sliders are still present for climate and volume controls, but at least here they actually work decently well. Second-row passengers also get their own overhead sliders to adjust their temperature.
Standard rear-wheel-drive versions get a single 282-horsepower motor, while dual-motor 4Motion variants like our tester get a bump to 335 horsepower. You obviously also get the benefit of all-wheel-drive traction, though you have to step up to the Pro S Plus trim to get 4Motion at all.
Acceleration is nice and zippy but not overwhelming. The ride is smooth and compliant. The regenerative braking is nice and predictable. You can strengthen the regen to get closer to one-pedal driving by twisting the gear selector over to the “B” setting, but you’ll have to do that each time you drive as it won’t carry over between power cycles.
So the styling is good, the practicality is good, the tech is pretty good, and the driving experience is enjoyable. You’re bombing around in your Buzz, taking in the scenery and thumbs up from bystanders, and everything feels right with the world.
And then you look down.
Suddenly you realize that you have 28 percent battery charge remaining and a paltry 67 miles before your Buzzy butt is sitting on the side of the road. You’re then scrambling to find a charging station because the Volkswagen ID. Buzz, in the best-case scenario, manages just 234 miles on a single charge of its 91 kWh (gross) battery pack made up of 13 modules.
The 4Motion model takes a slight range hit for 231 miles, but again, that’s assuming you drive conservatively everywhere you go. Get a spirited jump from the lights or cruise at highway speeds for too long, and that range figure precipitously drops off until anxiety sets in.
Times used to be that you bought an electric vehicle expecting it wouldn’t cover the sort of ground you’d manage on a family road trip. In several cases, though, that’s no longer the reality. SUVs like the Rivian R1S, Tesla Model X, and Lucid Gravity manage well over 300 or even 400 miles. Step down your budget a bit, even to within the $60,000 to $80,000 region we’re talking about here, and you can still expect a comfortable driving range and decent fast-charging capability.
At 200 kW peak charging speed, the ID. Buzz isn’t the slowest-charging EV around, but it’s certainly not the quickest either. VW says you can expect to charge from 10 to 80 percent in about 26 minutes, but there are still a couple of issues with that.
One is that you’ll spend a pretty penny DC fast-charging all the time. In our testing, a single session cost $26.43 to regain about 150 miles. The second is that, thanks to the relatively short range, you will be charging up a lot.
Which brings us to the elephant in the room. The Volkswagen ID. Buzz starts at $61,545. Spec up an all-wheel-drive Pro S Plus like we tested, and that figure goes up to $70,540.
Is the nostalgia hit and making other people happy worth that sort of investment?
After a few days behind the wheel, you can almost make a case to take the plunge. Almost.
Other quirks may factor into your shopping choice as well. There’s a surprising lack of cupholders for rear-seat passengers, though you can move the front console to the second row to partially fix that issue. Only the second-row passengers get a small sliding window for ventilation. These aren’t dealbreakers, but they’re the kind of oversights that are harder to forgive at this price point.
That said, there are reasons why you don’t want to write the Buzz off right now.
Despite only being on sale for a short time, dealers are extremely motivated to get these vehicles off their lots. Current incentives, including a $7,500 VW retail bonus and additional dealer discounts, can bring the effective price to around $50,000 in some markets. At that price point, the ID. Buzz suddenly makes a lot more sense, even with its range limitations.
And please, for the love of all that’s still good in the world, get it in an interesting color. VW sent us a single-tone Silver Buzz, which is honestly kind of a bummer as you can get awesome two-tone options in yellow, blue, red, orange, and even a mint green called “Mahi Green.” Life’s too short to make this kind of investment in a black or silver minivan.
At face value, we still have a hard time recommending the Volkswagen ID. Buzz due to the price and shorter driving range when compared to similarly priced competitors. In an era when electric SUVs routinely exceed 300 miles of range, the ID. Buzz’s 231 to 234 miles feels like a step backward.
But if you can snag one with significant dealer discounts or VW’s current incentives bringing the effective price down near $50,000, the equation changes. At that price, the ID. Buzz’s personality, practicality, and genuine fun factor start to outweigh its range anxiety issues.
This is a vehicle that makes you and everyone around you smile. That’s worth something, even if it’s hard to put a dollar figure on it. Just make sure you know where the nearest DC fast charger is before you head out on any adventure.
Volkswagen has not announced specific updates or pricing changes for the 2027 model year.
