VW ID.Buzz: Here still as a show car at the IAA - the production model, however, looks different
Photo: REUTERS
Standard surfboard? It almost looked like what Volkswagen presented in 2017 under the name ID.Buzz: a new edition of the original T1 T1, known as the hippie bus, but electrically powered and with all the comforts for the future. The manufacturer deliberately showed its design study in California under palm trees, with benches that can be folded down into a reclining area and a large panoramic roof with a board strapped to it. The "most beautiful, most exciting and most emotional electric car in the world," as company boss Herbert Diess put it.
Now the dream is getting closer to reality. The premiere of the electric van is planned for the coming spring, and the market launch is to follow in late summer. Therefore, vehicles from the production in the VW commercial vehicle plant in Hanover are already on the road for test purposes. VW itself already had a "near-series study" according to its own statements in November, which basically reveals the future appearance of the model, as it should actually go on sale, but with camouflage patterns on the body.
Now recordings of so-called Erlkönige are appearing in the motor press - prototypes that are underway with significantly less camouflage, apparently for winter tests in Northern Europe. "Motor 1" published several pictures of a white ID.Buzz in the snow. The VW logo is missing, the rear lights are covered, a plastic protection covers the side. All in all, however, the minibus is already clearly recognizable - and looks very conventional, especially compared to the original two-tone vision of the show car. It had a camera rearview mirror and an extravagant interior. Classic door handles like now could not be seen.
There were disappointed reactions from the car scene on Twitter.
“Pot ugly.
How can you deviate from the concept like that? ”Asked a user.
Someone made a mistake, commented another.
This is what the car should look like, he referred to the California vision.
The robotic variant is already driving through Hamburg
At a charging station near the A2 in Lower Saxony, a Twitter user saw the version as a delivery van at the end of November.
Here, too, the disillusioned comment: "Well, then the ID.Buzz looks like the T7," the current VW minibus model with a combustion engine.
A Volkswagen spokesman told SPIEGEL on Friday that the ID.Buzz will first come on the market with a basic five-seater configuration.
The series vehicle must adhere to the technical possibilities of the modular electrical construction kit platform, on which the previous ID.3 and ID.4 electric cars are also created.
Some of the study's fantasies fall victim to this.
This process of slimming down from a spectacular show car to a realistic production car is normal, but in view of the emotionally fueled expectation of the ID.Buzz, it should sober some Bullifans.
After all, a piece of the Bulli future is already driving through Hamburg.
The VW subsidiary Moia, which operates a shuttle service in the Hanseatic city, has had two vehicles mapped a test area for autonomous driving east of the Alster since October.
The future robotaxis, in camouflage optics and with roof structures for sensors from Volkswagen subsidiary Argo AI, are already based on the current prototype of the ID.Buzz.
The driverless operation of the Moia Bullis is not supposed to really start until 2025. The prestige project with VW major shareholder Qatar to offer a computer-controlled driving service with the ID.Buzz for the soccer World Cup in November / December 2022 in the Gulf emirate was, according to a report by manager magazines stopped.
VW has not yet made some decisions about the final appearance - for example, whether the panorama roof will at least be available as an option from the start.
A variant with a longer wheelbase will only be checked for a later date.
Then a camper van with California equipment would also be possible.
For the time being, it is "a dream of the future," they say in Wolfsburg.
ak
