Remember the line in “Titanic” when Rose was an old woman and she asked, “It’s been 84 years?” With the introduction of the American version of the Volkswagen ID.Buzz, that moment feels eerily familiar.
Why it took so long for VW Bus to return although the concept teasing us since 2001? Why produce two rows of ID.Buzz started in Europe a year ago, and three-row version of ID.Buzz was just announced on Friday? Why isn’t the three-row ID.Buzz even coming to the US for another year?
We asked Volkswagen executives these questions. In short, timing is everything and it takes a lot of time to get everything right, both in terms of packaging and America. But to an extent, if you’re frustrated by the lack of simpler, smaller ID.Buzz, you can blame focus groups.
2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz
Packaging Volkswagen ID.Buzz
President and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America Pablo Di Si told Green Car Reports that the company had wanted to bring buses back for a long time, but the unique design was forced to meet many needs. The short overhangs and packaging needed to make those things happen means the bus can’t go back to being a petrol truck, it needs to run on electricity instead. The automaker has been waiting for the right moment.
According to Di Si, focus groups in the US told VW they weren’t interested in the shorter two-row sedan that the rest of the world had for a year. The three-row model the wheelbase is it. The team needed time to stretch the wheelbase by nearly 10 inches, add a third row of seats, and install a larger 91 kWh battery pack (compared to the two rows’ 82 kWh battery pack). The three-row models also get a more powerful rear engine with 282 hp and the dual-engine models will get around 330 hp.
Regulated market differentiation also takes time. Kai Grunitz, head of R&D for the VW passenger car brand, says the lighting system on the three-row model for the US market is different and now has eight USB-C ports inside the ID.Buzz (for the ID.Buzz). America).
2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz
Volkswagen ID.Buzz electric architecture
But VW didn’t need the full two years to make the ID.Buzz longer and add a third row of seats. Modifying the lighting doesn’t take long either. Consumer feedback on ID.4 finally shows what VW had to do before ID.Buzz came along.
Di Si tells GCR his biggest criticism of Crossover SUV ID.4 From the customer side is the infotainment system.
Although ID.Buzz carries on his body MEB platform from ID.4, although it has different sizes, it has more memory and new CPU powering their interface compared to ID.4. The new interface, reprogrammed voice assistant and infotainment system run on some new hardware compared to the current Euro-spec model’s system. Grunitz says it will take a few seconds from boot to start navigating in ID.Buzz.
Grunitz notes that when ID.Buzz launches, the system needs to be perfect. There’s no volume knob, but the touch-based volume and climate control sliders are now backlit for ID.Buzz unlike ID.4.
These features, along with extended network update capabilities, will all be available for the first time in ID.7 hatchback before ID.Buzz.
2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz
Di Si admitted to making some mistakes with ID.4. Although the automaker tries to fix those problems through updates, they don’t want to make the same mistakes with ID.7, and especially with ID.Buzz. ID.7 will serve as a launching point to ensure any issues are fully resolved with new software and hardware before ID.Buzz launches in Q3 2024.
