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Payne: Lavish, lively, ‘lectric ID.Buzz transforms the VW Bus
Posted by Talbot Payne on October 24, 2024
San Francisco — The 2006 movie classic “Little Miss Sunshine” showcased the iconic, affordable, 1960-70s Volkswagen Microbus to a new generation of fans, complete with manual transmission, manual sliding door, unsafe driver position, and snail-like pace on the road.
The all-new 2025 Volkswagen Microbus is nothing like that.
In a reboot of V-dub’s most famous family hauler for the electric age, the Microbus — now dubbed ID.Buzz (see what they did there?) — has been completely transformed as a dual-motor, electric van with single-speed automatic transmission, auto-sliding doors, a cocoon of safety features, and 0-60 mph acceleration time of 6.0 seconds that would embarrass a 1969 Aston Martin DB6 Vantage (6.3).
Call this Buzz fancy, fast, and … not very ‘ffordable. If the original VW Microbus (Type 2, produced 1950-66 and Type 2 Gen-2, 1967-79) and its sibling Beetle were cheap, volume plays to capture American market share, the ID.Buzz and sibling ID.4 (VW’s first EV in the U.S. market) are an acknowledgment that the EV market is a niche segment aimed at luxury buyers.
Like the Hoover family, I traveled to California to put the latest V-dub to the test.
My ID.Buzz 1st Edition testers cost a whopping $67,045 (rear-wheel-drive) and $71,545 (all-wheel-drive). Compare that to the Hoovers’ 1978 Type 2 bus that would have cost (inflation-adjusted) $31K today. The 1966 model? A mere $23K.
But for all that dough, you get a lotta’ Buzz.
The tech-tastic Teuton is — perhaps more than any EV since the introduction of the Tesla Model 3 in 2017 — a testament to how much the automotive world has changed in the last 60 years. It’s also a testament to how difficult it will be to convince customers to reject the efficiency advantages of the internal combustion engine as automakers like VW rush towards an all-EV future.
The Hoovers’ dysfunctional family trip west to chase Olive’s beauty pageant dream nearly stalled because father Frank has a business conflict — and only he knew how to drive the Microbus’ stick shift. He eventually agreed to the trip.
If they had been headed to San Francisco instead of Redondo Beach, even Frank might have reconsidered. Frisco’s steep hills are notorious graveyards for manual transmissions. Comedians have made entire routines on the horror of starting in first gear on, say, Chestnut Street pointing straight up at the sky. STALL. GROOOONCH. STALL. AUUHHHRGGGH!
The Buzz made mincemeat of Chestnut.
With a simple rotation of the wrist, I shifted the Buzz’s single-speed automatic stalk on the steering column into DRIVE and sailed up the sheer face of Chestnut. Not just sailed — charged!
With 282 horsepower (335 for the AWD model) from its big, 86 kWh battery, the V-dub reared back on its haunches and accelerated with purpose. Had I run Chestnut’s stop sign (not a good idea), I might have gotten air like Steve McQueen in “Bullitt.” The ol’ Hoover Microbus likely would have wheezed to the summit in first gear for fear of losing momentum from a 1-to-2 upshift.
Merging onto Route 101 headed towards the Golden Gate Bridge, I even challenged a bigger Ford Lightning EV to drag race at a stoplight. They cost about the same, after all.
The Bay Area is politically green and loaded with green money, and there is a premium EV war on. Lightning, Audi e-trons, Hyundai Ioniq 5 N, Kia EV6 GT, BMW i5, Porsche Taycan, Tesla Cybertruck, Tesla Model X, Model Y Performance — heck, even the Waymo driverless taxis are Jaguar iPaces.
At $70K, the VW is actually at the low end of this premium mall (Made in Germany, it is not eligible for the $7,500 federal EV credit), yet it is every bit as distinctive as its peers. It caused as much whiplash as any Cybertruck during my day in the Bay area. The Buzz’s classic design is smartly updated with two-tone colors — just like the OG — complementing the modern design and sci-fi 20-inch wheels.
Like the Bug’s recreation in 1997, the look skews female as a cute minivan amongst squared-off SUVs like the Bimmer and Audis. But awake, the automatic handles and the sliding doors reveal an interior tech playground for us guy geeks.
The twin, hoodless, digital dash tablets are choked with technology from ambient lighting choices to multiple ECO, SPORT, NORMAL, and TRACTION (in the AWD model) modes. After crossing the Golden Gate, I activated adaptive cruise control and the V-dub virtually drove itself (that would have dropped Grandpa Hoover’s jaw!) to the coast. Exiting Route 101, I took Route 1 twisties on the way to Stinson Beach like a proper hippie bus — twisting the shift knob from D (Drive) to B (Regen) so that I could one-pedal drive, the electric motor braking the VW when I lifted off the accelerator.
The center console can be uprooted and moved to the back row. The second and third rows are as spacious as a Chevy Suburban, so dysfunctional families have more spacing from one another. I sprawled in the third row — flattening Row 2 as an Ottoman. USB-C ports, storage cubbies, and cubby dividers are everywhere. Even cubby dividers doubling as an ice scraper/bottle opener.
Want to store grandpa’s body in back like the Hoovers? Take out third-row seats like a Chrysler Pacifica. Want to stash his naughty magazines? Check out the storage bin under the tailgate seat. Tailgate seat? I could go on and on.
All these goodies reside under an (optional) two-way panoramic roof that changes from clear to opaque with the swipe of a button. The two-tone paint too girly for you? Choose a single color like black. Darth Buzz.
Speaking of Pacifica minivans, they’re cool, too, and would be a better choice for road-trippers like the Hoovers. The $50K Pacifica plug-in hybrid’s 500-mile range dwarfs the Buzz’s 234, and you can refuel 500 miles in 2 minutes compared to the Buzz’s 164 miles-in-30.
The Hoovers lost their clutch on the way to Cali, but charging delays would surely have made it hard to meet their 3 p.m. pageant sign-in. Then they really would have hated each other (and EVs). No, the Buzz is a local car for upper-income families who can afford airplanes for family trips.
I covered the Bay Area easily with the Buzz’s range. I plugged in at a 240-volt Rivian charger at Stinson Beach for a little extra charge while lounging on the sand. Charging is a lot easier to learn to operate than a stick shift.
Next week: 2025 RAM RHO pickup
2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz
Vehicle type: All-electric, rear and all-wheel-drive, six-or-seven passenger minivan/microbus
Price: $61,545, including $1,550 destination fee ($71,545 AWD 1st Edition AWD and $67,045 1st Edition RWD as tested)
Powerplant: 86 kW lithium-ion battery pack mated to rear or twin electric motors
Power: 282 horsepower, 413 pound-feet of torque (RWD); 335 horsepower, 512 pound-feet of torque (AWD)
Transmission: One-speed direct drive
Performance: 0-60 mph, 6.0 seconds (mnftr. AWD); top speed, 101 mph
Weight: 6,197 pounds (AWD as tested)
Fuel economy: 234-mile range (RWD); 231 (AWD)
Report card
Highs: Nothing like it on road; feature-rich, roomy interior
Lows: Pricey compared to comparable Atlas gas model; wonky steering wheel controls
Overall: 4 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or Twitter @HenryEPayne.