2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz AWD Review: Busing Through the Holidays

It’s the most talked about vehicle of 2024. Something many of us have been waiting for. After being teased for years, it’s finally here. No, we’re not referring to a certain, polarizing, angular pickup truck. We’re describing the EV that brings smiles everywhere it goes, the 2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz.

Earlier in the year Kyle got to test the reborn bus, as Volkswagen likes to call it, on the sunny, summery streets of San Francisco. He was quite impressed with the vehicle overall, with more positives than negatives to report. 

But how does the new 2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz handle real life? Especially in places that experience winter. To find out for ourselves, we grabbed a shiny new EV Bus from Volkswagen for two weeks over the holiday break.  

What’s New for 2025:

What’s old is new again, sort of. The 202Volkswagen ID.Buzz is a completely new vehicle built on a stretch version of the brand’s MEB platform. It’s styling however is heavily influenced by the original Typ 2/Sambabus/microbus, just with a modern twist. 

To celebrate the new model, Volkswagen is launching the ID.Buzz with the 1st Edition trim. It includes 20-inch disc wheels, 1st edition badging, an electrochromic glass roof, a harmon Kardon 14-speaker audio system, 360 cameras, easy open power sliding doors and liftgate, flexboard storage bins, captain’s chairs in the 4Motion, heritage premium floor mats, and roof cross bars.

Exterior Style:

As mentioned and is blatantly obvious, the ID.Buzz is retro inspired. From the side the resemblance is quite remarkable to the classic bus, other than the wheelbase. On the Buzz there’s a whopping 127.5-inches (3,239 mm) between the front and rear wheels, which is longer than a Chevrolet Tahoe. The overall vehicle length of the Buzz though is just 195.4-inches (4,962 mm), which is several inches shorter than Volkswagens Atlas SUV. 

The ID.Buzz is tall and wide, at a width of 78.1-inches (1,985 mm) and height pegged at 76.2-inches (1,935 mm). This leads to a very spacious cabin, but more on that later. Although the new vehicle has sliding doors and three rows of seating, Volkswagen does not consider it a minivan, even if the EPA officially classifies it as one. 

Up front, the Buzz has a giant VW logo that lights up and the prerequisite full width light bar all modern Volkswagen are equipped with. The nose of the van bus isn’t as flat as the original due to crash test and safety regulations, but the brand has done a good job making it as flat as possible. A lot of the trickery has to do with the front windshield that’s pushed way forward in the cabin. It’s so far away from the driver, large side windows are needed in the A-pillars. 

Powertrain and Fuel Economy:

For now, the 2025 VW ID.Buzz can be had with two drivetrains. Entry level vehicles have a single motor set-up powering the rear wheels. It produces 282 horsepower (hp) and 413 pound-feet (lb-ft) of torque. The upgraded powertrain incorporates a second electric motor powering the front wheels on 4Motion vehicles. In total this system generates 335 hp and the same 413 lb-ft of torque. 

As crazy as it may sound to call a small van with over 400 lb-ft of torque underpowered, in the world of electric vehicles, those numbers do seem a bit low. Especially considering the all-wheel drive ID.Buzz’s curb weight of 6,197 pounds (2,811 kg). Still, in city driving, even with a full load of passengers, there is more than enough power to accelerate the Buzz much quicker than is needed. On the freeway, at higher speeds, power does feel a bit less robust, but still adequate. Like most modern vehicles, the 2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz includes different drive modes like Sport, Eco, Comfort, etc. 

Sending power to the drive motors is a 91 kWh battery pack with 86 kWh net usability. For a larger EV, this is battery pack is on the smaller size, and that’s reflected in the vehicle’s estimated range. For rear-wheel drive models, range is listed at 234 miles (377 km) on a single charge. For 4Motion all-wheel drive models, range dips a bit to 231 miles (372 km). Being the winter holidays, below-freezing temperatures saw our range average around 205-211 miles (330-340 km). 

Although that’s more than enough for a day-to-day routine, the battery can easily be drained in three hours of driving. Most don’t drive that distance regularly, but bus/van/mpv vehicles are usually the choice for road trips and here, charging would need to be planned out accordingly. At least the ID.Buzz recharges quickly at speeds up to 200 kW. We also find it charges better than average with a simple household outlet, thanks to the on-board charger. 

Handling and Drivability:

The ID.Buzz’s modus apparatus is comfort and style first and foremost. Therefore, it’s no real surprise this big people hauler isn’t a driver’s delight to toss around a twisting road, even with the 265/45R20 tires. The long wheelbase and hefty curb weight may hamper cornering, but they enable the bus to be a dream on the freeway. The vehicle just tracts straight for mile after mile. It’s a low effort vehicle to operate, and when it is time to tackle a corner, the ID.Buzz is predictable and easy enough to change direction. 

With massive 15.0-inch front brake rotors and 13.0-inch ones in the rear, the Buzz has plenty of stopping power. That stated the brake pedal can sometimes be hard to modulate smoothly. There’s a bit of a dead zone when first depressing the pedal, which is shortly met with oodles of braking force. After a few days of driving, we got used to this behavior and once again delivered smooth decelerations. 

As mentioned at the start of this review, we are driving in winter and the day we picked up the 2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz. we drove an hour across the city in a snowstorm. Here, the long wheelbase, all-wheel drive, tidy road manners, winter tires, and weight attribute to surprisingly capable poor weather performance. When changing lanes on the freeway through slushy, snowy build-ups between lanes, the ID.Buzz never skipped a beat. It just plowed right through the muck, with no tugging on the steering wheel, slippage, or rear-end jitters. 

The only winter negative has to do with the vehicle’s front sensor location. Set low and front center, it can be covered in road muck like slush, mud, and/or snow. This causes a lot of the safety systems to disabled, like adaptive cruise, lane keep assist, etc, as the sensor can no longer get an accurate reading.

Ride Quality and Comfort:

For the most part, the 2025 ID.Buzz does a good job isolating the driver from the road below. The chassis and suspension smooth out rough pavement/concrete, making it even more of a highway star. But over cracked and/or crumbled pavement, the Volkswagen is prone to audible thumps and thuds from the suspension. These bumps aren’t necessarily felt in the cabin, but they are heard. Over more moderate road imperfections, the impacts resonate throughout the cabin as well. 

When it comes to actual comfort inside the reborn Buzz, it’s hard to match. The vehicle can come as a 6- or 7-seater, with the 4Motion 1st Edition only coming with six seats. Space is incredible inside, with front-seat passengers receiving 42.0 inches (1067 mm) of headroom and 37.5 inches (952 mm) of legroom. They also get heated, ventilated, and massage-capable seats. Moving to the middle row, space actually increases. Here there is 42.3-inches (1,074 mm) of headroom and 39.9-inches (1,013 mm) of legroom. These seats are also heated.

The third row of vehicles are notoriously cramped, but that’s not the case in the ID.Buzz. Although headroom is down a bit at 38.7 inches (982 mm), legroom is still a generous 42.4 inches (1,076). There are a lot of vehicles that don’t even offer that much space in the second row. This new Volkswagen is the champion of third-row space, as six full-grown adults can easily fit in complete comfort. It’s just like riding in a posh bus. 

Behind that third row resides 18.6 cu ft cargo capacity. Fold the rearmost seats down and capacity grows to 75.5 cu ft. Fold down the middle row as well and there is now 145.5 cu ft of space. If more storage capability is required, the 2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz is capable of towing up to 3,500 pounds (1,588 kg). 

Interior Style and Quality:

The interior of the Buzz may not be as funky and retro-styled as the exterior, but it’s still interesting and far from drab. A mix of materials and colors are present, especially when not opting for the black seats. As mentioned, the windshield is set way in front of the driver, which creates a massive dashboard. A medium size pizza or laptop could easily fit there. 

Most non-screen touch points inside are covered with soft materials, and the hard plastics that remain don’t look down market. It’s not exactly a Mercedes or BMW inside, but the Buzz feels more special than a regular SUV or minivan.

Tech and Safety:

The ID.Buzz 1st Edition comes well equipped with features like a 12.9-inch infotainment screen, a 5.3-inch digital driver information center, a wireless charger, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, Car-Net WiFi, a head-up display, power side doors, a power liftgate, a heated windshield, and much more. 

On the safety side there’s IQ.Drive which features a long list of active safety systems, as well as park assist plus with memory parking, and front and rear park distance control.

Value Dollars and Sense:

Electric vehicles still require quite a premium over gasoline-powered counterparts and the 2025 ID.Buzz is no exception. In the United States, the rear-wheel drive 1st Edition starts at $67,495 (all prices include destination charges). Our 4Motion-equipped tester checked in a total price of $71,545. That places it against some impressive premium three-row SUVs, although most of those use gasoline in some form or another. 

For our Canadian readers, the rear-wheel drive 1st Edition starts at $79,995, with the as-tested price of our 4Motion clocking in as $86,395.

Final Thoughts:

The 2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz has its quirks and flaws, most notably the range and price. But it’s also such a refreshing vehicle to drive in 2025. With style for miles, simple operation, fantastic freeway manners, and being spacious as heck, the big EV sits up there with some of the best multi-passenger haulers. If the drawbacks aren’t deal breakers, it is something any prospective customer should check out. 

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