Interestingly, the seven-seat version adopts a 2-3-2 seating layout, with a three-person bench in the middle. While this is great news for occasional third-row users, it doesn’t provide walk-through access for families really looking to get the most out of the third row. However, this configuration could very well change by the time the ID.Buzz comes to America as it appears the three-row model pictured is based on the European short wheelbase variant.
Interestingly enough, there is a teaser of an extended-wheelbase ID.Buzz in an earlier slide. However, just because a silhouette exists doesn’t mean it’s to scale. After all, if I just use absolutely the bare minimum effort in Photoshop to sort-of, kind-of stretch the ID.Buzz’s wheelbase to match the new silhouette, I end up with something like this.
Yeah, I don’t know about the execution here, and save for moving the whole B-pillar back, this might essentially be the most elegant way of doing a long-wheelbase ID.Buzz. It’s possible that Volkswagen will add metal both to the rear door and aft of the rear door, but we won’t know until the camo comes off. That being said, long-ass sliding doors might actually enhance third-row entry and egress should American models stick with a 2-3-2 seating configuration. After all, why go to the trouble of re-engineering seats?
Alright, moving on. All-wheel-drive isn’t a surprising addition at all, given how the ID.4 is available with motors front and rear. All-wheel-drive is pretty important if you’re going to sell a car in North America’s snow belt, and the same 295 horsepower as the all-wheel-drive ID.4 would make the ID.Buzz quite sprightly for a tower block on wheels. There’s something amusingly perverse about sitting nine yards off the ground while clicking off a reasonably quick zero-to-sixty time, so fingers crossed the all-wheel-drive ID.Buzz achieves that sensation.
Finally, here’s something more exciting – there’s a hot GTX version of the ID.Buzz coming. Performance vans aren’t exactly common, so it’s nice that Volkswagen’s launching a one-box cannonball into the weird car pool. I wouldn’t expect any more power than a standard model with the big battery pack and all-wheel-drive, but expect sports suspension and some natty visual alterations at the minimum. Actually, think 2011 Toyota Sienna SE but electric. I’d be quite alright with that.
While the ID.Buzz made quite a splash for a concept finally executed more than 20 years after the 2001 Microbus concept, it’s clear that Volkswagen is far from done with its reborn bus. While the standard ID.Buzz offers a fairly uneventful driving experience, more power and an available sporty trim should liven things up nicely.
Lead photo credit: Volkswagen
I can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t just be a different body shell on the same id4 skateboard. Those numbers would and variants would all be fine
It depends on how tightly VWoA reins in the dealers. If VW wants to get butts into seats telling dealers that markups are unacceptable and enforcing it will keep prices at MSRP. Otherwise this will be another vehicle that flops because of dealer greed. Which is too bad because they’re making good EV’s.
They’ll surely have some kind of split to the bench, Transit Connect I think is 60/40 on the 7-passenger versions. VW could offer captain’s chairs for the middle row for U.S. models since that is the popular setup here and they offer the Atlas as such, but it’s also VW in the U.S. market so who knows.
I know it’s just for a presentation but the AWD logo looks like the same as Chrysler used for the ’90s minivans?
I don’t see how a bigger door would help when the track for the door hasn’t changed size, there is no room for to slide any further out of the way.
Shorter: A shorter one wouldn’t sell because the Sienna and Odyssey exist here in the States. In both of those vans they have a generous cargo area behind the 3rd row. Having 3 rows with zero cargo area past the 3rd row sucks. Nobody wants their groceries under their feet.
Hybrid: The nose would be way too long. Or the ICE would intrude into the passenger area. It wouldn’t look right. And Toyota has this space covered with the Sienna. Honestly, between a Toyota or VW hybrid van, which would most buyers pick? A plug-in hybrid would be saddled with all those compromises plus needing a bigger battery and electric motor. The EU is cracking down on PHEV’s since shocker, they don’t get plugged in.
In summary, VW didn’t have a choice but to make it LWB and electric to make a compelling product for the US.
I have a 1st gen Mazda 5 and even with the 3rd row up I can fit a weeks worth of groceries in the cargo area. Those seats also split so for more room I can just flip one 3rd row down.
“Nobody wants their groceries under their feet.”
Insert “worlds smallest violin playing” meme…
This is like saying “Nobody will buy a twin bed because California King exists.”
The only reason I do not own a minivan is because the ones available in the USA are TOO BIG. The first manufacturer to put out a shorter 3-row van will get my money. I don’t even care what kind of powertrain it has.
[And no, the discontinued Transit Connect & Promaster City penalty boxes do not count.]
Boxster flat 4…wait for it…in the rear, where God intended Type 2-ish vans to have engines. I’d buy two.
Licence the boxer twin from BMW and replace the gearbox with a generator. You don’t need much engine for a REX.
“And all the ICE-specific stuff would be taking up space under the van and raising the entry height. Plus the inconvenience of a door being blocked during refueling. And ICE maintenance would be a pain in that tiny engine bay.”
If BMW could make it work in the i3 a decade ago I’m pretty sure VW can do it today in a far larger vehicle.
I’m honestly surprised that marketing tactic hasn’t infested other industries.
Who wouldn’t want a house with a “sport kitchen”?
Oh well, motorcars are tools of the devil anyway…
https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/geography/guidance/geo-areas/urban-rural/ua-facts.html
They’re already mostly functionally equivalent, and it’s inefficient making multiple slightly different versions of a car, and then running them through multiple slightly different versions of destructive testing. That’s why manufacturers don’t always bother. If we all used the same standards, the barrier to manufacturers selling over here would be much lower.
Alternatively, I’d settle for the US just admitting that cars originally intended for sale in [insert list of countries here] are close enough and are eligible for import, perhaps with minor modifications (e.g. headlight beam pattern, for cars from RHD countries) that would need to be signed off on by a licensed mechanic before the car could be registered.
Oh, wait… probably they don’t want to mess with their SUV sales. ????
For the target customer who is in suburbia, space to park isn’t an issue. This needs to have a big cargo area past the 3rd row to be taken seriously here. Every other minivan has that capability. And no, getting bulky stuff like sports bags out a sliding door around a seat is a pain.
