Volkswagen's classic camper van in modern format. The world premiere of the new ID.Buzz is near.

Text: Mia Litström
Foto: Volkswagen

The folkabuss is a wonderful classic that stirs a lot of emotions because of its history but also because of its looks. German VW is now reviving the iconic classic in a modern and electrified format. World premiere for ID.Buzz is coming soon. Eqotime's Mia Litström has taken a look.

The very first folkabuss was shown for the first time in 1949 and was then launched the year after. At that time the model had an engine that gave a paltry output of 25 hp. But it still held up and the next generation, which came in 1968 and which started being sold in Sweden had almost double the output which landed at 47 hp thanks to a 1.6 litre petrol engine. During the 1970s stronger engine options were launched. The model is almost cult status and several generations later it is more modern than ever, today it has all the prerequisites to become really trendy again.

The name is ID.Buzz. A continuation of Volkswagen's electric car venture with the name ID where the passenger cars ID.3 and ID.4 have become a success and soon it will also be time for their ID.5. But things are not standing still on the transport car side, rather the opposite. The new electric bus comes as two variants, ID.Buzz which suits the large family and ID.Buzz Cargo which is an electric transport car.

ID.Buzz is from the ground up constructed as an electric car, just like so many other electric cars it has short overhangs both front and back so that there will be as good space as possible in the car. Both variants are based on Volkswagen's electric car platform MEB where the battery is built into the floor and it has a capacity of 77 kWh which is the same as the other ID models. The electric motor is placed on the rear axle which means it is rear-wheel driven and the output is 204 hp. The top speed is 145 km/h and the measurements are: length 4.71 m, height 1.94 m and width 1.98 m. If you have a need to tow a trailer the towing weight is 1 000 kg.

Some of the news that has been released before the world premiere is "Plug & Charge" where it is enough to just plug in the charging cable for charging to start automatically. It will work with, among others, Ionity which means you don't have to deal with an app or charging card. Updates will happen the same way as for Volkswagen's other ID cars with over-the-air which means it will always have the latest updates. The car is large and long which makes it extra nice to get help with parking with, among other things, a function called "Trained Parking". It means you can "teach" the car via the modern technology to drive in and park itself in tight parking spaces. ID.Buzz has room for five people and the Cargo version is available with two or three front seats. The world premiere of the new ID.Buzz is on 9 March.