Ars Takes a Closer Look at Volkswagens Buzz Electric Van
Produced and directed by Sean Dacanay. Click here for transcript.
On Wednesday, Volkswagen used the South by Southwest festival to formally unveil the ID Buzz, the company’s forthcoming electric van. In the lead-up to that debut in Texas, VW gave Ars an hour with the gold-and-white show car to have a poke around.
You may have read our write-up on the car already, but we thought a video might be a better way to show off some of the quirky details of this new electric vehicle that’s causing a lot of buzz. (Not sorry.)
The ID Buzz you see in the video is actually a European-spec vehicle, which means it has the standard-length 117.6-inch (2,988 mm) wheelbase and seating for five. Europe also gets an ID Buzz Cargo, which ditches the second row of seats entirely.
Mechanically, the ID Buzz uses the same MEB platform (Modularer E-Antriebs-Baukasten or Modular Electrification Toolkit) as the ID.4 crossover. So the powertrain specs are identical—a 201 hp (150 kW) motor driving the rear wheels and an 82 kWh (gross, 77 kWh net) lithium-ion battery pack between the axles.
However, the US has to wait until 2024 for our first Buzzes, which will boast more length between the axles and a third row of seats. We believe the US will also see an all-wheel-drive option, and it’s possible there will be other battery pack sizes.
But with two years still to wait, it’s too soon to know how much it will cost or even its EPA range.
You may have read our write-up on the car already, but we thought a video might be a better way to show off some of the quirky details of this new electric vehicle that’s causing a lot of buzz. (Not sorry.)
The ID Buzz you see in the video is actually a European-spec vehicle, which means it has the standard-length 117.6-inch (2,988 mm) wheelbase and seating for five. Europe also gets an ID Buzz Cargo, which ditches the second row of seats entirely.
Mechanically, the ID Buzz uses the same MEB platform (Modularer E-Antriebs-Baukasten or Modular Electrification Toolkit) as the ID.4 crossover. So the powertrain specs are identical—a 201 hp (150 kW) motor driving the rear wheels and an 82 kWh (gross, 77 kWh net) lithium-ion battery pack between the axles.
However, the US has to wait until 2024 for our first Buzzes, which will boast more length between the axles and a third row of seats. We believe the US will also see an all-wheel-drive option, and it’s possible there will be other battery pack sizes.
But with two years still to wait, it’s too soon to know how much it will cost or even its EPA range.
Volkswagen Virtus will take on the Skoda Slavia, Honda City, Hyundai Verna and Maruti Suzuki Ciaz in its segment
Volkswagen Virtus GT Line Red Colour
Volkswagen is set to bring in the new Virtus mid-size sedan on 9th June 2022. Its launch date was scheduled for earlier, but has likely been delayed due to ongoing chip shortage. It has now entered production at the company’s manufacturing unit in Chakan, near Pune.
It is from the production plant that Youtube Channel of Rahul Muley has managed to do a quick walkaround shoot of the Virtus GT Line top variant. 2022 VW Virtus is a part of the company’s India 2.0 project and is the fourth car to be positioned on the localized MQB A0 IN platform that boasts of 95 percent localization. Virtus bookings have opened – both via the company’s online portal and through at VW India authorized dealerships.
Volkswagen Virtus Walkaround
Volkswagen Virtus will be presented in two trims of Dynamic Line and Performance / GT Line. The new sedan will stand 4,561mm in length, 1,752mm in width and 1,507mm in height. It will get a 2,651mm wheelbase while its boot space will be at 521 liters.
Virtus boasts of a distinct Volkswagen design language and gets LED headlamps with LED DRLs, LED tail lamps and chrome accents on its front bumper and grille. It also sports a shark fin antenna, an electric sunroof and rides on 16 inch alloy wheels. Take a look at the Volkswagen Virtus Walkaround video below.
The interiors sport a layout similar to that seen on the Taigun. VW Virtus sedan gets premium upholstery, a 10 inch touchscreen infotainment display unit with Android Auto and Apple Car Play along with wireless charging. Rear AC vents, automatic climate controls, ambient lighting and an 8 inch instrument cluster will also be a part of its interior makeup.
VW has introduced several safety equipment on the new Virtus. It complies with new safety standards with a total of 6 airbags – on the top spec variant. Other features include tyre pressure monitoring system, rear parking sensors and camera, electronic stability control along with ABS and EBD.
Volkswagen Virtus – Engine Lineup
The new Virtus, presented in 6 exterior colour options of Wild Cherry Red, Candy White, Carbon Steel Grey, Rising Blue Metallic, Reflex Silver and Curcuma Yellow. Volkswagen Virtus is powered by the same engine options that are seen on the Taigun, Kushaq and Slavia. There is a 1.0 liter TSI option, delivering 115 hp power and 178 Nm torque via either a 6 speed MT or AT.
Volkswagen Virtus GT Line Red Colour
It also gets a 1.5 litre TSI motor that offers 148 hp power and 250 Nm torque via 7 Speed DSG automatic. Manual transmission is not likely to be on offer with this engine option. The 1.5 liter engine will come with Active Cylinder Technology so the system can shut down some of the cylinders of the engine under ideal conditions relating to better fuel efficiency.
Slated to be presented in a price range from Rs 10-18 lakhs ex-sh, new Volkswagen Virtus will take on the Skoda Slavia, Hyundai Verna, Honda City and Maruti Suzuki Ciaz. VW Virtus launch date is 9th June 2022.
VW unveils adorable electric ID Buzz, US sales begin in 2024.
The three-row-long wheelbase version for North America is still two years away.
Nostalgia is a powerful emotion, particularly when you’re selling things. That’s why automakers regularly dip into their back catalogs to dust off a beloved nameplate or silhouette and marry it to modern underpinnings.
And you can’t get much more modern than a battery-electric powertrain, as in the case of Volkswagen’s new ID Buzz. The company that gave us the new Beetle based on the much-loved old Beetle has now drawn inspiration from its iconic T1 Microbus. Although we saw the initial ID. Buzz concept back in 2017, the vehicle is back as a production model. It goes on sale in Europe next year and in the US in 2024.
Depending how you look at it, the ID Buzz has been two decades in the making. Back in 2001, Volkswagen designed a new Microbus, which looked cool but never progressed past the concept stage. Ten years later, VW tried again with Bulli. Although Bulli looked less gainly than the Microbus, it was perhaps a more realistic representation of a production van, with a bulging nose to accommodate an engine bay and front impact protection.
The next VW van concept only took a half-decade this time. 2016 was the year of BUDD-e, which kept Bulli’s two-box shape but ditched the internal combustion engine. Instead, VW would develop a new flexible architecture for electric vehicles in the wake of dieselgate.
Then at 2017’s New York auto show, we saw the concept ID Buzz, a charming day-glo creation truer to the 2001 Microbus—and the Microbuses from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s—than either Bulli or BUDD-e. The reaction, even from people who usually couldn’t care less about cars, was remarkable, and VW quickly greenlighted the ID Buzz for production.
Over the last year or so, Internet chatter about the ID Buzz has at times been downhearted. People who saw photos of camouflaged Buzz prototypes worried that the concept’s charm had been watered down to the point where it would just be another boring minivan. After seeing the vehicle in person, I can say that their fears are unfounded. For one thing, minivans aren’t boring. And even if they are, this one isn’t.
A few of the 2017 concept’s details are missing—there’s no bleached wooden floor, and there’s no levitating gnome on the dashboard. The sideview cameras have been replaced by real mirrors. But there’s not really any more of a nose to the shape than the 2017 design study, and the vehicle still looks splendid in two-tone, which is now a more showroom-friendly gold and white rather than gray and fluorescent yellow. Between the axles, the ID Buzz packs an 82 kWh battery pack with a 150 kW electric motor driving the rear axle.
Despite the missing gnome, there’s still plenty of whimsy if you look for it. I counted a number of ID Buzz silhouettes, embossed into padded trim or molded into a seat base or even on the rear screen’s frit. Even the plastic bits that cover up screw holes have little winking smiley faces on them. And the pedals have the same “pause” and “play” symbols on them that we’ve seen on previous ID concepts and first editions.
The van is plenty practical, too, with USB-C ports all over the place and lots of storage spaces. The middle row of seats is not removable, but it does fold down, and VW will have a cargo shelf accessory that goes in the back. That means you’ll have a level floor (at the height of the folded-down middle seats) with storage space below.
Technically, the vehicle you see in the photos and video is not really a minivan, either. When Europeans get their first ID Buzzes next year, they will be getting this shorter-wheelbase variant, which only has two rows of seats in passenger specification. Europe also gets an ID Buzz Cargo that only has seats up front.
Neither the short-wheelbase passenger van nor the cargo van is destined for North America, however. Next year, VW will unveil a longer-wheelbase ID Buzz, which will feature three rows of seats. And this is the variant we’ll see in 2024. That’s too far off for VW to be able to tell us how much the vehicle will cost or get into specifications, including how far it can go on a single charge. We do expect there might be an all-wheel-drive option, and VW might make ID Buzzes with different-capacity battery packs. But we have no concrete information at this date
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