Status: 09.03.2022 7:26 p.m
The VW bus, also known as the “Bulli”, is making its debut in its electric version: the ID. Externally, Buzz is reminiscent of its oldest predecessor: the T1. But VW first has to prove that the model exists in the competitive market.
For VW Commercial Vehicles (VWN) in Hanover it is probably the most important model launch of the year: the ID. Buzz is raring to go. As a fully electric representative of the light commercial vehicles in the VW plant, the Bulli descendant is intended to herald the future of the automobile and will already be driving semi-autonomously on a trial basis in Hamburg from 2025.
“For me, the car represents tomorrow’s mobility: Electromobility, digitization, networking, autonomous driving, new mobility and transport systems – all of this comes together in the new ID. Buzz,” says Carsten Intra, CEO of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.
Production since last summer
In the summer of 2021, production at the plant in Hanover-Stöcken began on the ID. prepare buzz. A challenge for the assembly department, because more Bullis with combustion engines are being manufactured at the same time. There is a separate kit for “the newcomer”, as well as for the T 6.1 models and the still new Multivan T7 (since autumn 2021).
A van version of the ID. Buzz offers VWN. Series production of the ID. Start Buzz Cargo as a typical transporter. Orders can be placed from May, when the family version of the ID. Buzz go into series. Target in the first full year of production 2023: 50,000 to 60,000 ID. buzz In the following years there should be about 100,000 vehicles.
A lot of competition for an actually old idea
The market of the ID. Buzz Cargo is competitive. French and Japanese manufacturers in particular are heavily involved with their panel vans in the global boom in parcel and delivery services. Accordingly, VWN probably also wants to lure business customers with an interior that takes up style elements from the T1 generation and transfers them to today’s era of electromobility.
The ID Incidentally, Buzz is not the first Bulli with an electric drive. As early as 50 years ago, Volkswagen presented a T2 at the Hanover Fair as the first prototype that was powered by an electric motor in the rear. However, the maximum range of 85 kilometers showed that the battery technology was far from practical. But back then, in 1972, the dream of a locally emission-free Bulli was already born. “It will now become reality in 2022,” explains VWN Commercial Vehicles.