And its cute little face won't look out of place next to Lightning McQueen in Cars.
Awaiting the highly-anticipated local introduction of the all-new Volkswagen Transporter before the end of the year, we had a little taste of what the iconic VW Kombi can be like beyond in the incoming generation.
The German carmaker has not yet availed electric vehicles (EVs) to the Mzansi public, despite a few of these undergoing local testing. Over the last few years, we’ve driven the eGolf, the ID.3 hatchback and ID.4 SUV.
After undergoing testing in DHL’s fleet in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, VW has now also given the media a taste of the ID.Buzz. We were quite excited over the prospect of driving another EV from the VW stable. Albeit only in ID.Buzz Cargo guise and not the proper people mover the popular VW Kombi is best known for.
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VW uses the “ID” prefix for its range of electric cars. In the case of the van, the “Buzz” part is a light-hearted reference to the buzzing sound emitted from electric cars. It also serves as a link to the Volkswagen Type 2 bus on which its styling is based on.
VW Kombi reimagined
The Citizen Motoring thought the retro-meets-modern styling was very cool, and so did almost every onlooker. It gives real “hippie vans” vibes along with modern touches.
You will be forgiven for thinking the ID.Buzz looks like a character out of the Cars animated movie. The shape of the LED headlights creates the impression of a pair of eyes; the VW logo forms a snub nose along with a nice wide smile in the pattern on the bumper. Rounding off the look are cute round cheeks.
The rear and sides of the all-white van with steel wheels and plastic rim covers with are less imaginative, but there is only so much you can do with a panel van. A passenger van version showcased at the Festival of Motoring last year featured very attractive two-tone paintwork along with two-tone alloy wheels.
The impressive 3.9 cubic metre cargo hold, which are accessed through a sliding door on either side and double barn door opening tailgate, were not of much use to us other than children kitting it out with a camping mattress over the weekend.
Simplistic cabin
The very simplistic and industrial-like cabin, which will no doubt get plusher in a passenger offering, is in line with the ID.4 we sampled last year.
A 5.3-inch instrument binnacle and 12.9-inch infotainment system take care of most information and entertainment. The usual set of buttons feature on the polyurethane steering wheel, with the gear shifter located Mercedes-Benz style on the right stalk. A few physical buttons remained for volume, climate control and side mirror adjustment, but other than that it was a very simplistic affair.
One little oddity was the lack of a reverse camera, with the ID.Buzz only offering rear parking sensors. As a solid bulkhead separates the cabin from the cargo hold, you would at least expect seeing what is behind a 4 712mm long vehicle while reversing.
The electric van features an 82kWh battery which sends 150kW of power and 310Nm to a rear electric motor. To put this into perspective, the current VW Kombi’s 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine comes in three states of tune; 81kW, 110kW and 146kW.
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ID.Buzz packs a punch
VW claims that the ID.Buzz Cargo will sprint from 0 to 100km/h in a respectable 10.3 seconds. But because of the instant torque, it feels much faster. We gave a Ford Ranger Raptor owner a big fright when we managed to stay with the raucous bakkie bumper to bumper during acceleration when the light turned green. Much to the Raptor man’s relief, the van’s power started waning at the national limit.
If you don’t take on fast bakkies and manage to consume around 20kWh per 100km, you should get around 400km on a single charge. It also only took 30 minutes at a 120kW DC charger to take the battery up from 24% to 80%.
Like with the ID.4, the drive is very easy and pleasant. We could just imagine how nice it will be to cruise around in a plusher passenger version of the ID.Buzz taking the family on a cruise. The beloved VW Kombi reimagined for the future. A future that might not be all that far away.
