We’ve driven a lot of cool stuff this year. The Rolls-Royce Spectre left us spellbound. The McLaren Artura rewired our brains. Both the Lamborghini Huracan Sterrato and Tecnica genuinely scared us—because they unleashed demons we kept chained-up deep within our subconscious. But nothing—except for maybe the Sterrato—garnered as much attention as the 2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz.
The ID. Buzz is a painfully obvious tribute to VW’s most iconic model. No, not that one—the other one. It’s impressive that the original Bus has lived rent-free in our minds for decades, but it’s equally surprising that it took Volkswagen this long to cash in on the nostalgia. Still, in this Year of our Lord 2025, the ID. Buzz is finally here, blending buckets full of charm with a decidedly modern powertrain. You can finally stop living in the past, man.
Now, before you dive head-first into the pool of rose-tinted nostalgia, there are a few things you need to know. First, the price. The ID. Buzz starts at $77,495 for the base-for-now, rear-drive First Edition model, before any options, destination fees, taxes, and all that fun stuff. Our tester is the all-wheel-drive First Edition with all the option boxes checked, ringing up at $86,495 as-tested. No matter how you look at it, that’s a steep price to pay for nostalgia. Word on the street is VW plans to introduce some lower-priced and lower-contented trims, but right now, you’re stuck paying Ioniq 5 N money. Still, we have no doubt Volkswagen will sell every single one of these—at least until the initial buzz dies down. Pun intended. Had to squeeze in at least one.
What might be a harder sell is the ID. Buzz’s range. VW quotes 373 kilometres of range on a full charge, which is … not bad, but not great. We started our week with the ID. Buzz estimating 384 km, but we got exactly 340 out of it before plugging in with exactly six kilometres left. It wasn’t even that cold out; we’ve seen that much of a disparity with the rear-drive Ioniq 5—in the biting dead-of-winter, rather than the nippy mid-autumn air. VW estimates a full charge from empty happens in about 12 hours, while plugging into a Level 3 fast-charger nets a 10-to-80 per cent charge in about half an hour. Both estimates line up with our real-world charging experiences.
So, now that we’ve got all that out of the way, onto the important stuff. Despite its baggage, you’ll still fall for the ID. Buzz. It absolutely nails the look, channelling that obvious sixties energy in a way that wouldn’t really have been possible without an EV platform. It makes everyone smile. People will wave, throw up peace signs, whip out their phones and cause an accident, and talk to you at charging stations. Our two-tone green-on-white colour combo, set off by white wheels, was particularly striking. It’s all so fun.
VW takes a much more modern approach to the ID. Buzz inside. The dash is dominated by a 12.9-inch touchscreen running Volkswagen’s newest, love-it-or-hate-it infotainment. Once you’ve figured out the learning curve, it’s not that bad. They listened to most of the complaints; the temperature bars and volume slider now light up at night. It’s augmented by a 10-inch digital gauge cluster that can be manipulated via VW’s equally love-it-or-hate-it capacitive-touch steering wheel controls. If you’ve spent any time in any other new VW, the Buzz ought to feel familiar—for better or worse.
Elsewhere inside, the ID. Buzz goes ham with charm. The orange accents might not be for everyone, but it works with the warm, off-white colourway. A piece of faux birch wood trim framed by a metallic silver trim piece adds to the sense of width—and with the big windows and glass roof, the Buzz feels bright and airy. Fit-and-finish is pretty good, there’s heaps of space and plenty of storage regardless of where you sit, and with our tester’s second-row captain’s chairs, you can pull off a Chinese fire drill without stepping outside.
On cargo space, the ID. Buzz is rated to take 526 litres behind the third row, 2,138 with the third row folded, and a whopping 4,120 with everything stowed. Both the second and third rows fold flat, and a removable carpeted panel extends the flat floor all the way to the tailgate. You can remove the third-row seats, too, but one thing we’d like to see is an easy way to pop out and hide the sliding privacy cover. It runs directly across the third row, which isn’t the most intuitive arrangement when you’re back there.
And we’d be remiss not to mention the metal framing holding up that nifty cargo floor cover. There’s enough clearance to allow for two low-profile totes, but it can also rattle going over a gnarly-enough bump. Best to make regularly ensure the mounting screws are tight.
Under the old-school-cool styling, the ID. Buzz is essentially an ID.4, built atop the same platform and using the same powertrains. Base models use a single, rear-mounted electric motor putting out 282 horsepower and 413 pound-feet of torque. Our tester gains an additional electric motor up front, giving it all-wheel-drive and a bump up to 335 hp. Both flavours use the same 91 kWh battery pack, 86 of which are usable.
The ID. Buzz is swift and silent, shooting off the line with the thwack of insta-torque you’d expect—and it looks hilarious in doing so, because it’s a toaster on wheels. The Buzz does feel a touch jittery over rougher bumps, and road noise tends to reverberate through the cabin more than you’d expect because of how open the cabin is. Otherwise, wind noise is well-hushed, and squeezing through tight spots is a breeze thanks to the light steering, massive windows, and 360-degree camera system.
As a rational and pragmatic choice, the ID. Buzz doesn’t make sense. Until VW introduces a lower-spec trim level or three, its expensive for what it is, and its range—both estimated and observed in the real world—fall behind what we’d consider “normal” these days. But you know what? Making the rational and pragmatic decision all the time is boring. For those who choose to live a little, the 2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz absolutely nails the mission. It marries rose-tinted nostalgia with a modern powertrain—wrapped up in joyful styling that gets more attention than a Huracan Sterrato.
