The ID Buzz’s low center of gravity, optional 21-inch wheels, and rear-wheel drive combine for a surprisingly fun drive. Hell, if you look at the front end of the ID Buzz just right, even it seems to be smiling. It was smiles all around, very similar to the joy we spread when driving that delightful old Type 2 around Scotland. People were so charmed by it that they would engage me with questions when parked at charging stations or pull up alongside while driving to flash thumbs-up and hang-loose gestures. I will say this in summary of the ID Buzz itself: everyone who drove it or saw it loved it. For comparison, it’s still much cheaper than a €113,990 base Tesla Model X SUV in the Dutch market at the time of publication. It’s priced at almost €80,000 (about $88,000), which includes roughly €14,000 of taxes here in the Netherlands. My review vehicle is a fully loaded ID Buzz 1st Max Edition passenger van with every option possible. Knowing that makes me feel less like a hapless victim of the sentimentality machine - or so I tell myself. So, in reality, the ID Buzz is more than just a cheap nostalgia ploy - it’s following the same evolutionary path as its incredibly iconic and successful predecessors. The ID Buzz is built upon the same MEB platform as VW’s first electric car, the ID.3, just like the original Type 2 Microbus derived from the Type 1 Beetle. Say hi to Fergus, our trusty Type 2 Microbus in Scotland. For that reason, my single favorite feature is an optional (€331) DC-to-AC inverter that places a European standard 230V power socket beneath the front passenger seat (more on that later). This is a review of the ID Buzz as an adaptable do-it-all campervan - one vehicle that serves a variety of needs. To be clear, this isn’t a review of the VW ID Buzz electric van - there are lots of places you can get that from people with much more car experience than I have. The age of e-vanlife is dawning, and our experience with the ID Buzz is a preview of what’s to come. The experience was an epiphany for me, a first-time EV driver and aspiring digital nomad, with many lessons learned along the way. We slept, worked, and ate (minus a few lunches) exclusively from the ID Buzz for a period of two weeks. With that in mind, I packed up my wife and dog and began a nearly 2,000-mile round trip trek across Europe from Amsterdam in the north to Milan in the south, on a loosely planned road trip that still required us to clock in at work each morning. So, I decided to put the ID Buzz and Ququq to the test to answer two main questions: can today’s ID Buzz already function as an electric campervan, and can it support remote work for an extended period of time? It’s available right now, and at €2,790 (about $3,000) costs a fraction of the premium the VW ID California will likely demand. It converts either the ID Buzz passenger or cargo vans into a two-person camper - and back - in just minutes. Ugh!Ī post shared by The Verge a few months ago, I discovered the aftermarket Ququq BusBox-4 camping box. For that, I’d have to wait until 2025 or longer. That is until I learned the unthinkable: the ID Buzz would launch in passenger and cargo variants only - no “California” campervan. Generally, I abhor blatant attempts to convert nostalgia into product or ticket sales, but VW had me hooked ever since the ID Buzz was introduced as a far-out concept. See, I’m the guy who spent a week living in a VW Transporter T5 “Ventje” last year and once rented a vintage Type 2 VW Microbus named “Fergus” for a summer just to wild camp around Scotland with my family. But when Volkswagen announced the production model of the all-electric ID Buzz, which began hitting European roads late last year… well, suddenly, I was very interested. I can name every Tesla model, a few pickups from Ford and Rivian, and that’s about it. Like most people, I’m intrigued by the idea of electric cars but not yet convinced it’s time to make the leap. Two humans and a beagle named Hank spent two weeks and 2,000 miles in Europe with a Ququq camping box to preview the future of #vanlife.
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