270-Mile All-Electric VW ID Buzz Is the VW Bus Reimagined

Only a year after it unveiled the BUDD-e concept and six years after it dropped the Bulli concept, Volkswagen is rolling out a fresh re-imagination of the iconic Microbus at the 2017 Detroit auto show in the form of the I.D. According to the folks at Volkswagen, the I.D. Concept will be ready for series production by 2025. But it’s notable because it gives consumers and the rest of the industry some sense of what vehicles will make up Volkswagen’s electric vehicle portfolio.

Volkswagen has come under fire for its focus on electric vehicles because federal regulators have required the company to contribute $2 billion to zero-emission vehicle research after it was caught rigging hundreds of thousands of diesel cars to cheat US pollution standards.

The Volkswagen I.D. Buzz has been revealed at this year’s Detroit Motor Show.

Range alone does not sell electric cars however: Ever since Tesla started extracting ludicrous speed (both figuratively and literally) from its cars, performance has also been an important factor.

The idea revolves around the company’s widely popular Microbus, being equipped with a fully autonomous “I.D”.

The large 111-kWh battery pack has enough juice for 600Kms while Volkswagen claims that the batteries can be charged to 80-percent level in just about half an hour when using a fast charger. To call the steering wheel a steering wheel is to rather insult it – it’s a high tech touch pad with a leather rim, taking care of most of the driving functions, from gear selection to activating the autonomous mode. Moving beyond which everything about the I.D. Buzz is futuristic.

The Buzz’s interior features a steering wheel that retracts into the dash for fully autonomous driving. This I.D. Buzz minibus shows us what we might be in for – including a modular, convertible cabin, augmented reality HUD, removable dash and speakers and laser-guided self driving.

In the “I.D. Pilot” mode, the front seats can be electrically unlatched and rotated so they face the rear, after the “I.D”. Volkswagen hasn’t announced any official timeline for production of its autonomous all-electric vehicles, and it’s safe to say that the cars that eventually make it to VW dealer lots won’t have the same over-the-top design cues as the concepts. There are also touchpad panels in the door trim panels and the outside of the third seat row.

The Volkswagen I.D. Buzz is only a concept as of writing. A variable interior layout provides the scope for a multitude of different seating layouts, while two separate luggage compartments, one up front and one at the rear, endow the new concept with respectable load carrying capacity. Compared with a modern minivan like VW’s most recent-the Chrysler-built Routan-it’s 8.0 inches shorter in length, 8.4 inches taller in height and 0.9 inch narrower.