The upcoming all-electric Kombi – to be known as an ID.Buzz in its passenger format and ID.Buzz Cargo in a commercial format – has been snapped charging its battery at a station in Germany ahead of its 2022 unveiling.
Instagrammer David Red saw the electric Volkswagen charging at a car wash facility in Braunschweig, Germany and posted his photographs of the vehicle to his Instagram account on Sunday (Europe time).
Notably, it was parked next to a T6 Transporter at the time, giving a great opportunity for size comparison.
Red, who drives a Volkswagen electric ID.3 Pro Performance, said in his post: “I was amazed when I noticed the ID.Buzz on the charging station while charging. Somewhat camouflaged and accompanied by a T6. Perfect for size comparison!”
Well, it clearly wasn’t camouflaged too well considering it was hooked up to an electric vehicle charger. But nevertheless, the sighting is interesting – not least because Volkswagen has said previously that it will commence testing an autonomous ID.Buzz in 2021.
However, it would appear that this vehicle is not set up to be autonomous – at least not yet.
In March, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles shared that its plans for an autonomous ID.Buzz would use AI software developed by Argo AI and involve setting up a ride-sharing or carpooling service eventually.
Images shared in that announcement at the time show an ID.Buzz with what appears to be a 360-degree sensor at the top of the vehicle, which the images shown by Red are clearly missing.
Unless Volkswagen has chosen to embed cameras in sensors into the vehicle instead, Tesla-style, we’re banking on this being a standard ID.Buzz.
Whether or not the ID.Buzz will make it to Australia after its 2022 launch is something of a mystery.
Volkswagen has previously lambasted the Australian government for impeding a local transition to emissions-free transport – going so far as to call it a “third world” for EV policy – and said that Australia’s lack of supportive policy for EV adoption would hold its local arm from importing new electric models like the ID.3 and ID.4 until at least 2023.
But more recent movements in state EV policy have brought it around to a more positive stance.
However, while the introduction of rebates for EV purchases – $3,000 for the first 20,000 drivers in Victoria and up to 25,000 drivers in NSW, along with a range of other incentives – has been welcomed by carmakers including Volkswagen, the elephant in the room is the continuing lack of vehicle emissions regulations in Australia.
This is because it needs to prioritise inventory to Europe – where carmakers face big fines if they don’t bring their fleet emissions average to under 95 grams of CO2 per kilometre.
Australia has no such regulations in place, even though some states are bringing in road user taxes for electric vehicles whilst ignoring the impacts and ensuing social costs that high-emitting combustion engine vehicles have on health, air pollution and climate. Victoria’s EV road user taxes come in to play on July 1, 2021 and are tipped to cost drivers an average of $300-500 a year.
And as Car Expert reports, Australians are keen to get their hands on electric Volkswagens, which surely is promising for the brand given the damage to its reputation for using cheat devices to pass emissions testing.
According to its report, Nick Reid, Volkswagen Group Australia national marketing and product manager told it that the brand’s local arm gets “many calls” from both customers and celebrities who want to have the first one in Australia, echoing comments made by VW Australia CEO Michael Bartsch in March.
See also: Volkswagen to phase out combustion engines in Europe by 2035
Bridie Schmidt is associate editor for The Driven, sister site of Renew Economy. She has been writing about electric vehicles since 2018, and has a keen interest in the role that zero-emissions transport has to play in sustainability. She has participated in podcasts such as Download This Show with Marc Fennell and Shirtloads of Science with Karl Kruszelnicki and is co-organiser of the Northern Rivers Electric Vehicle Forum. Bridie also owns a Tesla Model Y and has it available for hire on evee.com.au.