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Notes on the Volkswagen ID. Buzz’s First Drive!
Our partners (and co-workers) at Motor1 got the chance to test drive a pre-production Volkswagen ID. Buzz recently. This Volkswagen electric van is perhaps the company’s most anticipated electric vehicle, partly because of its historical ties and partly because of its size, making it either a superb people-hauler or a compact-ish freight mover.
Although we’ll leave the complete review to Motor1, we’ll share some of the highlights with our readers here. To begin, a little background on the 45min first drive event. It happened in the United Kingdom, but because the electric minivan was not a right-hand-drive type, the driver had to drive on the wrong side of the road in a minivan designed to drive on the right side. That made things a little more difficult.
We also weren’t permitted to photograph the vehicle’s inside. However, leaked photos of the van‘s interior showed us what it looks like a while back, so we have an idea of what the inside looks like.
Motor1 wrote very comically:
VW chose to let me test drive the Protobuzz (unofficial name) in its Milton Keynes headquarters, roughly an hour outside of London. This charming town is said to have the most roundabouts in Europe, a fact that got less exciting when I learned I’d be driving a German-spec car on the wrong side of the road. At least, other drivers could see me coming.
Motor1 Test Driver’s comment.
The driving position in the VW ID. Buzz is quite high, and the outward visibility is exceptional. In terms of speed, the VW ID. Buzz isn’t very fast, but it’s not slow either. The van produces 204 hp and 221 lb-ft of torque from a 77.0 kWh battery, which matches the Volkswagen ID.4.
In the future, we anticipate a larger battery version. According to sources, work is underway on something in the range of 111 kilowatt-hours. Volkswagen, on the other hand, is not willing to confirm any further battery sizes at the moment.
In terms of range, the Motor1 test driver said: “Given the VW ID.4’s 249-mile range, the Buzz pulling off something over 200 doesn’t feel outrageous.”
It will be our first chance to view the production minivan, according to Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess, on March 9th. This will also be the first time we’ve seen the long-wheelbase model, and it’s the only one that will be sold in the United States. The Volkswagen ID. Buzz will be available in the United States in 2023, around a year after it is released in Europe.
