How We Used a Volkswagen ID.Buzz to Help Spread Holiday Joy

This is not a vehicle review. It’s not a full test of the Volkswagen ID.Buzz’s driving and livability characteristics. If that’s what you’re interested in, we spent multiple weeks in the vehicle last holiday season and posted an in-depth written and video review. In summary, it’s one of the coolest vehicles on the road that drives well, has tons of space, is loaded with tech, is comfortable, but is not without its fault (limited range, weak brakes, high price tag).

This holiday season I’m back in an ID.Buzz, but it’s for different reasons. The goal is simple: help spread some holiday cheer to those less fortunate.

The idea was simple. My son’s elementary school was having a Christmas social and wanted to conduct a food and toy drive. As families attended the event, they could bring an unwrapped toy or non-perishable food item for donation. The question was, how do we make the collection eye catching and noteworthy? I suggested filling up a vehicle as I had the perfect candidate in mind – the Volkswagen ID.Buzz.

Although it has been out for over a year, the big electric van still garners attention everywhere it goes. With few being on the road, seeing one is not an everyday occurrence. Thanks to its shape, size, and in this case, two-tone paint, it doesn’t sneak by unnoticed. Volkswagen agreed with my plan and lent us a 1st edition 2025 ID.Buzz.

For our event, we had it parked out front of the school at night, with the parking lights outlining the headlights and VW front logo. There’s something about the ID.Buzz that’s cheerful and puts a smile on most folk’s faces. Comments, observations, and compliments rolled in as fast the donations.

Like most vehicles on the road, the 2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz comes with outlets to power a variety of external devices. Most of these outlets are USB-C, designed to charge smart phones and tablets. There is a 12V in the rear cargo area and a 110V conventional outlet under the passenger seat.

Although both outlets are limited in ultimate output, they is enough to power a few strings of lights to add a bit of a festive touch. As well, since the ID.Buzz is all-electric, no gas engine needs to be run to ensure the vehicle remains powered. I could keep it on for hours at a time, leaving the air in the school’s alcove clean.

Ambient interior lighting has become an almost necessity for trendy vehicles. Especially lighting that can be customized. The ID.Buzz not only has a huge selection of hues to choose from, it’s also capable of displaying two-tone light patterns. More than that, there are a variety of lighting patterns available as well.

After a bit of trial and error, I was able to set-up the buzz in the most Christmas appropriate lighting pattern, red and green. It further added a little holiday season ambience, which is exactly what this lighting is meant to do.

In the end, we may not have completely filled the ID.Buzz floor to roof, but with a small school, that was never going to happen. What we did do is collect hundreds of toy and food donations for those in need.

Sure, the food and toy drive would have been a success regardless of the ID.Buzz’s presence, and the holiday spirit would also still have been in full swing. But Volkswagen’s big EV enhanced the sights and sounds of an already great event. That's always been part of its appeal, it's just so darn cheerful.

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