2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz

The 2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz is a fully electric minivan with styling that evokes the original VW Microbus — a cultural icon of the 1960s and '70s for its representation of a free and adventurous lifestyle. The front end's upright styling is clearly meant to evoke the style of Microbus, and you might see some 1990s VW Eurovan here too. But otherwise the ID. Buzz is fully modern and offers the latest in EV technology.

The ID. Buzz shares its fundamental architecture with other electric vehicles from the Volkswagen Group lineup, including the ID.4 and Audi Q4 e-tron SUVs. What you get from picking the ID. Buzz over those models — besides a healthy dose of nostalgia — is extra family-oriented practicality, with tons of passenger and cargo space.

Volkswagen plans to make its first U.S. deliveries at the end of this year.

On paper the rear-drive ID. Buzz has very competitive horsepower and handily out-torques every other minivan out there; with all-wheel drive it's no contest. On the other hand, the ID. Buzz weighs in at around 6,000 pounds, which might mitigate any performance benefit.

Regardless, both the rear- and all-wheel drive versions of the Buzz I drove in the hilly, winding roads north of San Francisco were impressive from behind the wheel. The driving position takes a few heartbeats to get used to since the base of the windshield is quite far away. Once acclimated I appreciated the Buzz’s good all-around visibility.

Beyond that, I just enjoyed driving it. The Buzz has little to no sporting aspirations, despite a mild Sport mode that makes throttle response and coasting regen a bit more aggressive. But the low center of gravity, sharp steering, and firm-but-not-harsh suspension combined to make the Buzz entertaining in the hills northwest from Marin. It gripped corners aggressively whether in AWD or rear-drive form in a way that minivans usually don’t. The AWD version pulled itself out of corners more aggressively, but the rear-drive felt slightly more agile thanks to the lighter front end.

On the highway the Buzz was a comfortable cruiser. The suspension soaked up the bombed out streets of San Francisco with ease, and it was pretty quiet too. Oftentimes an EV's lack of engine noise emphasizes things like tire and wind noise. There was some of the former, but the latter was limited to just a bit of rustling around the big side mirrors.

One critical thing to know if you drive a Buzz: You’re gonna be on a LOT of Instagram and TikTok stories. The Buzz had pedestrians and drivers of other cars pointing and smiling, taking pictures and giving thumbs up. If you want to spread joy as you tootle around town, the Buzz might be the best possible way to do it.

The ID. Buzz is fairly comfortable, but there's room for improvement. The front seats are well cushioned and decently adjustable, from four-way lumbar support to an extendable lower thigh cushion for those with longer legs. Seat heaters and coolers are standard, a nice touch, as is the three-zone automatic climate control.

The second-row offers up tons of space and is at least as comfortable as the front. All-wheel drive models come standard with a pair of captain's chairs, reducing the total seating positions to six, but both are plenty comfy for long hauls, and have a long slide fore and aft, plus good recline angles. The outboard positions are also heated on all trims, another welcome touch. But it might be that the secret sauce to the Buzz is the third row. It's as roomy as the second row in a lot of midsize SUVs, and also slides fore and aft with adjustable recline angles. It's easy to fit a 6-foot driver, 6-foot second-row passenger and 6-foot third-row passenger in the Buzz, with plenty of room to spare, even if the third row is in its forwardmost position. That's a neat trick.

The exterior design of the ID. Buzz is certainly eye-catching, and luckily the interior matches its vibe. There's a wide range of textures, wood-grain patterns and pastel colors throughout the interior, with three color themes available: brown-forward Copper, blue and dark brown Moonlight and the light colored Dune that's only availble on the 1st Edition trims. There are also playful icons, including several Easter eggs — ID. Buzz silhouettes — and even an embossed smiley face to liven up lowly door-trim screw caps. I also liked the clever "Play" and "Pause" symbols on the accelerator and brake pedals, and that the dividers for the center console also double as a bottle opener and ice scraper. It's fun and charismatic, and since none of these touches get in the way of using the Buzz I say, what the heck.

With all that said, it'd be nice if Volkswagen didn't use so much hard plastic throughout the interior. With the exception of the armrests, seats and headliner, nearly all of the touchpoints in the ID. Buzz cabin are hard plastic. There are smart ways around all this plastic without raising costs too much (just look at any new Kia or Hyundai interior) and implementing them in the ID. Buzz would go a long way.

The ID. Buzz comes standard with a 12.9-inch central infotainment display screen. There is also a small digital display in front of the driver to show speed, battery levels, navigation and other information.

The overall look is very similar to that of the ID.4 and carries forward a major complaint that we've had in recent Volkswagen models: an absence of physical buttons and dials. It opts instead for capacitive touch controls. They tend to lack responsiveness, sometimes require tapping over and over again and can generally be frustrating to use. The ID. Buzz has the latest software and indeed seemed to have snappier input response, but fundamental operation is still much more finicky than it should be.

IQ.Drive, VW's suite of advanced driver aids, is here and it worked well. Adaptive cruise control, for instance, is pretty handy especially in slow-moving traffic, and in traffic the lane keeping assistance felt better than it had in previous instances with this system. .

Storage is one of the main reasons to consider buying an ID. Buzz. Up front, there are large pockets and rubberized trays to store small items, including a deep well next to the steering wheel for slipping your smartphone inside vertically. USB charge ports abound as well, with four ports up front and one at each sliding door in the back, plus ports for the third row. There is also a center storage bin that features folding openings at the front and rear and configurable cupholders, and it can be fully removed very easily to create a clear path to the second row. You can even relocate it to the second row on six-passenger versions, or purchase an additional console if you like.

The cargo area behind the third row at first looks small, and it lacks the deep well of other minivans. However, the standard shelf-and-bin setup is handy, and it removes easily to expand the cargo floor. The hatch opening is wide and tall, and the floor is low to the ground so it's easy to load large objects. The third row can be folded forward or removed entirely, and if you maximize the cargo area by removing those seats and folding the second row forward you get 146 cubic feet of cargo space, which is more than any other minivan out there. If you tow, the ID. Buzz can handle up to 3,500 pounds in all-wheel-drive versions (2,600 pounds in rear-wheel rive) and it comes with a clever fold-down trailer hitch that stows out of the way when not in use.

When it comes to electric vehicles, range is the number that people focus on over efficiency, mainly because the cost of electricity is still a fraction of what it is to fill up a gas tank. The EPA estimates the single-motor rear-wheel-drive ID. Buzz can travel 234 miles on a full charge. Considering its battery has 86 kWh of usable capacity, this translates to a consumption rating of 37 kWh/100 miles. Surprisingly, the much more potent dual-motor model is only slightly less efficient, netting 231 miles on a full charge, per the EPA.

In the real-world Edmunds EV Range Test, we've seen on average 13% more range in the ID.4 than its EPA estimate. So it's possible to see similar results out of the ID. Buzz.

As far as charging goes, the ID. Buzz will be able to support up to 11 kW of Level 2 AC charging, as well as 200 kW at a DC fast charger. In terms of time, you'll be able to charge from zero to 100% in a few as 7.5 hours at home and from 5% battery to 80% capacity in as little as 26 minutes given the right conditions at a DC fast charger.