The all-electric ID.Buzz advance sales are filling up quickly, with the majority of the sales in Norway, Volkswagen says.
The zero-emission version of the German carmaker’s minibus – known fondly in Australia in its original 1960’s format as a Kombi, and as a Microbus in the US – was opened up for pre-orders in June.
Its on sale price in Germany starts at at 54,430 euros (around $A79,000) in Germany for the Cargo version and 64,581 euros (around $A94,000) for the five-seat passenger Pro version.
Autonews Europe reports that employees at Volkswagen’s Hanover plant were told in an internal communique from VW Commercial Vehicles’ Lars Krause that 10,000 orders have now been taken for the ID.Buzz.
“10,000 orders, without the car actually being at the dealer, let alone a customer having driven it,” Krause was quoted as saying. “That is just impressive.”
Series production of the ID.Buzz commenced in May, and there are 15,000 planned for production by the end of 2022.
According to the email from Krause, this means two-thirds have now been accounted for, and a third will head to Norway.
The automotive site reports that 3,400 orders have been taken from Norwegian customers, while German customers account for around 2,500 orders.
Netherlands and Belgium account for 1,100 and 1,000 sales respectively.
Specifications for the ID.Buzz include an 82kWh battery (77kWh usable capacity) – allowing for around 400km driving range – and a 150kW electric motor. Charging is possible at a maximum rate of 11kW on AC chargers and 170kW on DC public fast chargers, allowing 5-80% top-ups to be completed in less than 30 minutes.
The front shield with the V-shaped indentation, which was one of the original Kombi’s most distinctive design features and is hinted at on the front of the ID.Buzz, is one of the ID.Buzz’s main visual influences from the first generation of the VW Kombi bus.
The ID.Buzz has attracted rave reviews from automotive media in Europe. Sadly it is not currently slated for sale in Australia, although fingers crossed the recent upbeat announcements on Friday that federal government policy will favour EVs and limit vehicle emissions will change that.
Volkswagen has already expressed its approval of the change of attitude at a national level, flagging that introduction of fuel emissions standards will allow it to bring more EVs to Australia sooner.
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.