If you have been counting the years until the U.S. gets the Volkswagen ID Buzz, the all-new, fully electric microbus redux, sit down and fret because your wait has gotten longer. The U.S. was supposed to get the ID Buzz next year, but the bus’s launch is being delayed until 2023. The update came from Scott Keogh, CEO of Volkswagen of America, during a panel discussion as part of an Automotive News panel discussion in conjunction with CES 2021.
The modern take on the retro hippie-era van will be built in Hanover, Germany, for export globally. The plant is being retooled for production next year of the low-volume lifestyle vehicle. But the microbus must share capacity with a small electric commercial cargo van for Europe and that has been deemed a priority. (With pandemic-related door-to-door shipping what it is, the move makes sense.) Additionally, European markets will get the ID Buzz ahead of other markets.
Dealers and Customers Are Asking for the VW Microbus
VWoA CEO Keogh says he wishes the ID Buzz was arriving next year, adding that customers and dealers keep asking for it.
VW is concentrating on higher-volume electric vehicles first, including the 2021 Volkswagen ID4 electric compact SUV that is slated to go sale in the U.S. this spring. The automaker’s EV push comes thanks to a new modular electric-vehicle platform known as MEB that was designed to spawn a wide assortment of vehicles of assorted sizes and body styles as part of a corporate pivot to electric vehicles in the wake of the diesel emission scandal. VW has said it intends to sell 22 million EVs a year, globally, by 2029.
