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VW reveals more US ID.Buzz features, but no prices yet
VW reveals more US ID.Buzz features, but no prices yet

VW reveals more US ID.Buzz features, but no prices yet

May 13, 2024
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Volkswagen has confirmed feature, trim, and color combinations for the upcoming 2025 ID.Buzz in its long-awaited U.S. specification.

The ID.Buzz will initially arrive for the U.S. in a launch-only 1st Edition version, VW confirmed, plus two other trims: Pro S and Pro S Plus. 

U.S. prices won’t be announced until close to its launch, according to VW. It had previously targeted the U.S. version for first deliveries in June or July 2024, although VW of America has more recently suggested it won’t arrive until later in the year. If it’s any indication, VW still doesn’t appear to have a live online U.S. build tool, allowing customers to visualize its different American proportions and build combinations. 

As VW revealed with 2025 VW ID.Buzz specs nearly nearly a year ago, U.S. versions of the ID.Buzz will ride on a nearly 10-inch-longer wheelbase than the two-row model that won’t be sold in the U.S. Set to have a 91-kwh battery pack, the U.S. ID.Buzz will come with a single-motor electric powertrain for now, and it gets the 282-hp unit from the 2025 VW ID.4. A dual-motor version with 335 hp (also the same as the ID.4) is on the way. VW confirms the U.S. version will be able to tow with an available retractable tow hitch, but it hasn’t yet confirmed ratings. 

Volkswagen ID.Buzz (Euro spec)

Volkswagen ID.Buzz (Euro spec)

In a review of the ID.Buzz EV in standard-wheelbase form two years ago (a version for Europe and other markets), Green Car Reports saw it as a great family vehicle in the tradition of a minivan, carrying over some of the excellent ride-and-handling traits of the VW ID.4 with which it shares MEB underpinnings. 

In its launch-only 1st Edition, which builds on the Pro S trim, the ID.4 gets a two-tone exterior with a unique 20-inch wheel design, roof rail cross bars, a “coastal-inspired interior” with a panoramic roof, a 700-watt premium sound system, power-sliding doors, and a power tailgate. 

The base Pro S will get 20-inch wheels, a parking-assistance system, 30-color ambient lighting, and the bigger, much-improved 12.9-inch infotainment system now given to most of the ID.4 lineup. 

2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz

2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz

The key differentiator for the extended-length U.S. version is its second-row bench seat, allowing space for up to seven. Pro S Plus versions get bench seating as standard in single-motor form, but a captain’s chair package—dropping capacity to six—can be added. The captain’s chair layout is included on Pro S Plus and 1st Edition versions, and will come standard with all-wheel drive.

Despite the delay to repackage this vehicle for the American market and add three-row seating, none of the ID.Buzz versions offer completely flat-folding seats, underscoring an issue with skateboard-layout electric vans and their underfloor space that’s occupied by the battery pack. Included on the 1st Edition and optional on the Pro S Plus is a Flexboard system that adds two fabric storage bins and “creates a flat floor when the seats are folded”—by laying an elevated panel through to the hatch, at the level of the folded second row. The third row can be removed completely, though, and the second row slides fore and aft 7.9 inches.

The Volkswagen ID.Buzz is a modern electric-van incarnation of the VW Microbus, and it’s been a long time coming. That’s especially the case for Americans, which perhaps had the strongest connection to the original Microbus via car culture. 

VW decided that Americans didn’t want the version of the ID.Buzz that’s 185.5 inches long, or about the same overall parking footprint as the bestselling Tesla Model Y, riding on a wheelbase about four inches longer. In its U.S.-bound XL form, the ID.Buzz is 192.4 inches long, 77.9 inches wide, and 74.6 inches tall, and it has a 127.5-inch wheelbase. It will also get a huge panoramic glass sunroof, measuring 67.4 inches long by 40.8 inches wide, with electrochromic tinting. 

VW is putting a big emphasis on color combinations inside and out for the ID.Buzz, and they’ll be different in U.S. versions. On the outside that includes bright white two-tone combos with orange, yellow, green, blue, and more, while single-color options are limited to silver, white, and pearl. Inside, the American version of the ID.Buzz will also get unique color combinations, including synthetic-leather seats in shades of brown and gray, a wood look for some of the trim, and various piping shades, with one of the combinations, Copper, said to channel “mid-century modern vibes.”

2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz

2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz

Remarkable cabin trim and luxury features were never part of the original positioning of VW’s Microbus. Nor was a mid-century design aesthetic. So with VW mixing its messages on the Buzz, and building a product that’s a modern take on childhood nostalgia at this point, it remains to be seen whether this now much bigger product connects with Americans. 

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