At the auto show I attended last fall, the Volkswagen ID. Buzz appeared to generate considerable attention. Even so, sales are reportedly so sluggish that “huge discounts” are being offered. One factor could be buyer resistance to a steep base price of $59,995 (George, 2025). Another problem area may be a mediocre range of 234 miles per charge for the rear-wheel-drive model (Hogan, 2024).
“A key part of being a people hauler is hauling people, and the ID. Buzz can’t haul them very far,” argued Mack Hogan (2024). “Factor in that on a road trip you’ll mostly be recharging to 80%, and not running below 10%, and you get about 163 miles between real-world stops. That’s assuming no cargo and fair weather. At least the 10-80% time is a relatively speedy 26 minutes.”
The high price and low range are partly a product of the car’s almost 6,000-pound weight. That’s well over twice as much as the VW Microbus of yore. Although heavy batteries are a major contributor to the weight gain, so too is making the ID. Buzz much bigger than the iconic bus whose legacy it trades on.
Also see ‘VW Superbowl ad waxes nostalgic for the kind of cars it no longer makes’
The Microbus had a “subcompact” footprint, with a wheelbase of only 94.5 inches and a width of 69 inches. In contrast, the ID. Buzz is more akin to larger minivans such as a Toyota Sienna or Honda Odyssey. The new VW’s wheelbase is 127.5 inches and width is 78.1 inches.
VW assumed that Americans wanted their minivans big because it only offers in the U.S. a longer-wheelbase version with three-row seating. In Europe a two-row model has a 10-inch-shorter wheelbase.
Forthcoming ID. 2 was a better size for a minivan
Imagine if VW had instead come out with a minivan based on the brand’s forthcoming subcompact electric hatchback, the ID. 2. That car has an ideal footprint for a modern Microbus — a wheelbase of 102.3 inches and width of 71.3 inches — which is expected to translate into a U.S. price of around $26,000 (Furlong, 2025). A minivan would obviously be somewhat more expensive, but still tens of thousands of dollars less than for the ID. Buzz.
I suspect that from a purely stylistic standpoint that an ID. 2-based minivan would have captured the essential spirit of the Microbus much better. The ID. Buzz gives off an overly bloated vibe similar to the 2002-5 Ford Thunderbird, which failed to emulate the 1955-67 two-seater because it was far too big.
Someone who reads this will invariably argue that today minivans are supposed to be big enough to haul a lot of people and stuff. That may be the conventional wisdom, but the Japanese and South Korean automakers already have that market locked up, so why not try something different — particularly when affordability has been a key barrier to more rapid EV adoption (Sery and Le Morois, 2024)?
An ID. 2-based minivan that was attractively priced could have helped to popularize EVs. This would have better aligned with the Microbus’s legacy.
Indie Auto commentator Adam B pointed out that VW even had a model to work from — the 2011 concept car called the Bulli. It was similar in size to the ID. 2, with a wheelbase of 102 inches and a width of 68.4 inches, but was not electric powered.
One could quibble with design details of the Bulli, such as an overly wagon look due to a short deck, front-hinged rear doors and front doors moved to far behind the windshield. However, the Bulli’s general size strikes me as much more appropriate for an EV incarnation of the Microbus.
In other words, VW could have returned to its roots of “thinking small,” just like its famous early-60s ad for the Beetle. Instead, the automaker has once again traded on cheap nostalgia — and is getting exactly what it paid for.
Share your reactions to this post with a comment below or a note to the editor.
RE:SOURCES
- Furlong, Karl; 2025. “2026 Volkswagen ID.2 – Review.” CarBuzz. Accessed March 10.
- George, Patrick; 2025. “The Volkswagen ID. Buzz Is Already Seeing Huge Discounts.” Inside EVs. Posted Feb. 24.
- Hogan, Mack; 2024. “2025 Volkswagen ID. Buzz Review: Where’s The Vision?” Inside EVs. Posted Oct. 21.
- Sery, Jules and Jean-Baptiste Le Marois; 2024. “Cheaper electric cars: the key to unlocking mass-market adoption.” IEA. Posted Dec. 20.
PHOTOGRAPHY:
- 2011 Volkwagen Bulli: Photo by Autoviva via Wikipedia Creative Commons 2.0.
There was an EV startup called Canoo that shut down a couple months ago. Their product came closer to the concept of the VW van than this.
I do agree the ID.Buzz is rather large and heavy. I thought perhaps an ID.2 based model was overly optimistic, but it turns out what you’ve described is very close to the Bulli concept shown in 2011, which is about the same footprint as the original Microbus, which had an innovative 3+3 seating layout and internal combustion engine (but could likely be built off the ID.2 platform).
Good point. I have added to the story a photo and some text about the Bulli. It doesn’t quite have the full “van” look because of front-hinged rear doors, but it strikes me as getting into the ballpark of what VW could have done with the ID. Buzz. Thank you for the information!
I’ve been waiting on this new bus for years! I wish they would’ve built a gas-powered version. They ostracized half of the buyer pool with green electric-only push.
VW is not the only manufacturer to not understand how there are problems counting on EV only as their solutions. The marketplace with real people using real money speaks louder than the musings of the tree huggers and government provided EV rebates. Cadillac is a big offender of missing this concept. Toyota, on the other hand, continues to show why their management decisions are better.