Volkswagen ID. Buzz review

But this was an itch that VW could not stop scratching, so since then we’ve been through 21 years of teasing concepts: the 2011 Bulli, the 2016 Budd-e and the 2017 ID. Buzz. You might see this as confirmation that once every decade the motor industry looks back (Porsche Boxster and Beetle Concept 1 in the 1990s, Ford Mustang GT concept and Fiat Trepiùno (Cinquecento) in the 2000s, and Renault’s 5 Electric concept and the ID. Buzz in the next decade, ad infinitum…).

On the other hand, there’s that pleasing facet of EV skateboard design which allows you to put exactly what you want on top. VW’s MEB battery electric platform is just such a skateboard, so why not? And maybe it was that cost-effective base which, finally, finally turned the boardroom lights viridescent in Wolfsburg at the idea of a Type 2 replacement.

Badged as an ID. Buzz, your choice is a five-seat bus or two/three seat van called Cargo. Prices start at £57,115 on the road for the base Life trim, rising to £61,915 for the upmarket Style version and £62,995 for the 1st Edition, tested here. The Cargo starts as the Commerce version at £38,125 without VAT and rises to the Commerce Plus with radar-and-camera-based safety and parking assistance at £42,375.

Expensive? Of course, but there’s nothing else like it out there. You can have a Mercedes-Benz EQV from £71,760, but that feels and drives like a 90kWh, 211-mile-range airport courtesy bus. Vauxhall’s Vivaro E-Life costs from £34,645 with up to nine seats and a 143-mile range, but it’s a van with seats and windows and feels and drives like it, too.

It is important to note now that the ID. Buzz is not a camper. You can get a sort of mattress basement false floor and what’s called a ‘cuckoo box’, which is a camp kitchen in a fabric box, but all that other stuff (seven seats, four-wheel drive, a full Camper version on a longer wheelbase with a bigger battery and US sales) is yet to come.

Whatever you think of the design, the ID. Buzz is a big vehicle; 4712mm long, 1985mm wide and 1937mm high – the original 1950 Type 2 was 4280mm long, 1720mm wide and similarly high. At a time when multi-purpose vehicles are fast disappearing from price lists, one can’t help wondering if VW hasn’t reinvented the market niche.

It’s pleasingly retro without being a pastiche, a bit like the modern Fiat 500 in fact. But that battery electric drivetrain means it’s heavy. It’s plated at a maximum of three tonnes, which means, with a kerb weight of 2.47 tonnes with a driver, you’ve only got 530kg as payload (650kg for the Cargo) and that means with five large adults on board, there’s only allowance to put in 190kg of luggage in the simply massive 1121 litres of load space – which is perhaps why VW has restricted the seating to five. If you fold the rear seatbacks (60/40 per cent) you get 2205 litres. It will tow a very modest one tonne load and the Cargo van has space for two 1.2 metre Euro pallets in the back, though they’ll have to be loaded with sacks of feathers.

The battery is the largest currently available on the MEB platform, a 77kWh net lithium-ion unit, powering a 201bhp/228lb ft electric motor which drives the rear wheels via a single drop-down gear. Top speed is 90mph and 0-62mph is achievable in 10.2sec.

Range is quoted at 258 miles, but I saw just 208 miles driving sensibly within the speed limits out Copenhagen and over the Øresund bridge to Sweden.

There’s an 11kW onboard charger, and it will charge at up to 170kW on a DC charger. Charge times are 21 minutes for an 80 per cent charge on a 170kW plus DC charger and 10.5 hours on a 7.4kW home wall box. Efficiency is quoted at 3.35 miles per kilowatt though on my drive I saw an average of 2.9m/kW and I wasn’t whizzing around. Promise.

Of course, VW says the ID. Buzz emits zero emissions at the tailpipe, but plugging in has an environmental cost and using the latest Government data, it has a well-to-wheels CO2 emissions of 35.2g/km.

If you think the coachwork design is well executed and fun, get a load of the inside, where this van is a complete scream. The surfacing is quite lovely, with vegan trim materials which unlike most such things, feel nice to the touch. The inspiration is Type 2, but this is way more practical, with large and comfortable seats, plenty of head and leg room front and back, and an open floor between each side at the front, a lovely throw-back style that would enable Herbie the Labrador to lie between Mrs English and I, much to the joy of all three of us.

Striated surfaces meet and match beautifully with a wood trim just like the old Bay Window Mk2 bus and there are stacked storage shelves, fold-out mug holders, and lovely double door bins. The dash has a place to store and charge your phone, but while VW’s practice of swapping all USB slots for USB-Cs might be applauded by the tech industry, it implies a sort-of throw away culture which the old Type 2 driving hippies would never have supported.

The driving position is as far as possible from the old rear-engined vans where you sat over the front axle. In fact, this feels more like the much-missed Renault Espace, the coolest-ever MPV, where there are a couple of football pitches of dash top between you and the front window.

It’s all just lovely. Well it would be were it not for the infamous VW Cariad software package behind the central touch screen. It might now be in the more-stable 3.2 generation, but it’s still a bit rubbish. The graphics are pretty good, but how failing to illuminate the temperature and radio volume controls got past any sort of management test, I’ll never know. And the sub/sub/sub-basement level in the software that reveals just one function tile is a bit like that fabled answer to the Schleswig Holstein question: three men knew the answer, but one’s dead, the other’s mad and I’ve forgotten. In addition, there are too many over-sensitive steering-wheel buttons which are impossible not to trigger when tight manoeuvring. Grrrr…

Oh, and I’m really sure I didn’t imagine it, but when you unlock the van and climb in, the brake pedal wags up and down like the tail of an excited dog – WTF?

Dynamically and like most EVs, it’s quick off the line. Maximum torque from zero revs can be intimidating, but VW has given a decent progression to the accelerator so you can trickle the ID. Buzz along the packed streets of Copenhagen as bearded hipsters admire its lines. Acceleration doesn’t start tailing off until well after 70mph, so overtaking shouldn’t be a problem, which will come as a novelty to anyone who’s driven an original Type 2.

The steering feels well worked, with good on-centre response and a decent weight, although there’s a bit of wind up in the system before the wheels and tyres actually turn. There are four different driving modes, which progressively tighten the steering and throttle, but for the most part Comfort is the best compromise. Those big wheels set up a bit of racket even on ultra-smooth scandiwegian roads and there’s a distinct ‘sproing’ as they hit expansion joints and sharp-edged holes and bumps.

With MacPherson-strut front and multi-link independent rear suspension and on those optional 20-inch wheels, the ID. Buzz feels quite capable of comfortable long-distance travel were you able to access the sort of regular fast chargers you meet in the Northern countries. Ride quality is smooth and quite like that of the ID.3 with soft damping and refined, progressive roll resistance. There’s a slight jelly-on-a-plate wobble from the rear in a straight line, but it doesn’t scrape the door handles in corners and the brakes are really well worked with progressive stopping through the transition from regeneration to friction braking.

And while it’s a big heavy thing, manoeuvring is far easier than you might think. As well as the panoply of bells, whistles, reversing cameras and warnings on the screens, there’s also the basic requirements of big, useful door mirrors and good visibility out of the front with a large windscreen and quarterlights, and out of the rear three-quarters.

As a commercial vehicle, the ID. Buzz Cargo is a bit of a nonstarter; unless you’re delivering packets of high altitude air, the payload is about half that of a typical diesel alternative. And as multi-purpose vehicles are the fastest disappearing market segment in Europe, you’ve got to wonder if a five-seat bus with a small payload is really what the market needed. I understand why there is no seven-seat option, at least as yet, but that does not mean it wouldn’t be very welcome.

The gulf here between ‘need’ and ‘want’ is wider by far than you might expect for such a car, for the truth is the ID. Buzz doesn’t make much sense, is expensive and has a flawed configuration. Yet so too is it a profoundly desirable machine. The charm, the care, the history it evokes and the long-legged comfort are almost irresistible. Rare indeed are the occasions when I walk away from a test vehicle wondering how I could make one mine, but this, undoubtedly, was one of them.