VW unveils adorable electric ID. Buzz, US sales begin in 2024

When you sell things, nostalgia is a powerful emotion. That is the reason why automakers often use their back catalogs to remove beloved silhouettes and make them modern.

In the case of Volkswagen's new ID, you can't get much more modern than a battery-electric powertrain. There is buzz. The name has a period in it. The company that gave us the new Beetle based on the old one drew inspiration from the T1 Microbus. We saw the initial ID. The vehicle is a production model. In Europe and the US it will be on sale.

Depending on how you look at it. Buzz has been in the making for two decades. Volkswagen designed a new Microbus back in 2001 but never made it past the concept stage. VW tried again with Bulli. Bulli was a more realistic representation of a production van, with a bulging nose to accommodate an engine bay and front impact protection.

The next VW van concept took half a decade. The year of BUDD-e was 2016 and it was the year of Bulli. VW would develop a new flexible architecture for electric vehicles in the wake of dieselgate.

The concept ID was shown at the New York auto show. Buzz is a charming day-glo creation that is truer to the 2001 Microbus and the Microbuses from the 50s and 60s. The VW greenlighted the ID despite the fact that most people wouldn&t care about cars. Buzz for production.

Internet chatter about the ID over the last year. Buzz has been downhearted at times. People who saw camouflaged Buzz prototypes worried that the concept had been watered down to the point where it would be boring. I was able to say that their fears are not true after seeing the vehicle in person. For one thing, minivans are not boring. Even if they are, this one is not.

There is no levitating gnome on the dashboard and there is no bleached wooden floor in the concept. Real mirrors replaced the sideview cameras. The vehicle still looks great in two-tone gold and white, despite not having a nose to the shape of the design study from last year. The ID is between the axles. The rear of Buzz's battery pack is powered by a 150 kW electric motor.

There is still a lot of fun if you look for it. I counted the number of identifications. Buzz silhouettes can be molded into a seat base or even on the rear screen. The plastic bits that cover up screw holes have little faces on them. The symbols on the pedals are the same as on previous ID concepts and first editions.

The van has lots of storage space and plenty of ports for charging devices. VW will have a cargo shelf accessory in the back of the car, but the middle row of seats is not. You will have a level floor with storage space below it.

The vehicle you see in the photos and video is not a minivan. Europeans get their first ID. The shorter-wheelbase variant of the Buzz will only have two rows of seats in passenger specification. Europe also has an ID. There are only seats up front for Buzz Cargo.

The passenger van and cargo van are not destined for North America. VW will have a longer-wheelbase ID next year. There will be three rows of seats. We will see this variant in 2024. It is too far away for VW to tell us how much the vehicle will cost or how far it can go on a single charge. We expect VW to make ID, and there might be an all-wheel-drive option. There are different-capacity battery packs. There is no concrete information at this time.