Volkswagen ID.Buzz Cargo Review (2022-present)

What is the Volkswagen ID.Buzz Cargo?

The the Volkswagen ID.Buzz Cargo is something of an anomaly in the new van market. You see, while most commercial vehicle contenders live and die by their payload figures, load volume and low ownership costs, the Volkswagen ID.Buzz Cargo doesn’t give a flying fig about any of that: its payload and practicality are borderline woeful, and it’s an astronomically expensive vehicle to buy. Not a tremendous start, then…

However, the ID.Buzz Cargo’s appeal lies in other areas. As a panel van version of Volkswagen’s super-cool ID.Buzz people carrier, which takes its retro design inspiration from Volkswagen’s iconic Type 2 bus of the 1960s, the Cargo has a level of desirability, image, and sheer want-one factor that no other warehouse-on-wheels can come even close to matching. Not only does that make life with your van a bit more cheerful, but we reckon it’ll have tangible PR and marketing benefits for the right kind of business.

It’s not all about style, mind. It’s better to drive than most vans - maybe because it’s based on VW’s MEB electric passenger car platform rather than a dedicated van platform - and it has lots of power and range compared with most other electric vans. A facelift that took place late in 2024 also made improvements in those last two areas.

In terms of size and price, it’s a rival for mid-size electric vans such as the electric Ford Transit Custom. However, its relatively poor payload and load volume figures put it alongside much smaller and cheaper rivals such as the Renault Kangoo and Ford Transit Courier.

How practical is it?

Climb into the front of the ID.Buzz Cargo, and you’ll find that it has a three-seater bench seat for you and a pair of colleagues. The middle ‘jump seat’ is a little narrower than those either side, but there’s not a great deal in it, and the cabin is wide enough to accommodate three sets or shoulders reasonably comfortably.

Everyone sits in a rather upright position, which some might think feels a little awkward. However, there’s lots of headroom and legroom on offer, so things shouldn’t feel cramped. Cabin storage is decent, with a variety of cubbies in the top of the dashboard, plus a decent glovebox, some small door bins and a pair of cupholders. However, you don’t get overhead storage shelves mounted over the top of the windscreen like you do in many rivals.

The passenger version of the ID.Buzz has fairly plush-feeling materials and a vivid interior colour scheme to keep things feeling classy, cool and characterful. In the Cargo, however, this is all toned down a bit. The plastics are harder and more functional, while the colour scheme is dulled down to a no-frills grey finish. That’s no bad thing in a working vehicle, though, and everything feels very solidly assembled.

The Volkswagen ID.Buzz is not the biggest van of its type, and that shows in the cargo area: this is far from being the most capable load-carrier in commercial vehicle circles when loaded up to the gun wales. The loadbay measures 1,230mm in width between the wheelarches, and 2,208 long when fitted with the standard side-hinged wing doors, or 2,232mm when fitted with the optional top-hinged tailgate. Neither of those figures are any great shakes. You can unhook those wing doors from their stoppers, which allows them to open at 180-degrees to the load entrance, therefore improving your access to the loadspace. You also get a sliding door on either side of the vehicle for even better access to the space.

Total load volume is given at 3.9 cubic metres: again, that’s no great shakes, and is more comparable to the figures you’d get on smaller rivals, rather than vans of the Buzz’s size. It’s on payload where the Volkswagen really struggles, though. The best figure you can expect is 710kg, which comes on the lowest-spec Commerce version. That drops to 693kg for the Commerce Plus version, and if you choose a 4Motion model, the figure drops below 600kg. The Gross Vehicle Weight - or GVW in commercial vehicle speak - is 3,150kg, meanwhile. With all these figures, to say that they’re average would be being very kind.

The loadbay has a wooden floor as standard, while a hard-wearing, wipe-down plastic one can be specified as an optional extra. The cargo space has bright interior lighting and steps leading in from the two sliding side doors to aid your access into the space. Concealed in the step on the driver’s side of the loadbay is a hidden compartment for storing the charging cable.

What’s it like to drive?

The VW ID.Buzz is different to most vans in that it isn’t based on a dedicated commercial-vehicle platform. Instead, it’s built on the same MEB architecture that underpins all of Volkswagen’s all-electric ID passenger cars. You might be expecting a rather more car-like character to the way the ID.Buzz drives, then, and to a certain extent, that’s what you get.

Compared with most vans, the ride is fairly smooth, body roll isn’t too overpronounced in corners, while the front end of the vehicle feels quite pointy and responsive to turns of the steering wheel. The steering is light enough to make low-speed manoeuvres nice and easy, helped further by the comparatively tight turning circle, yet meaty enough at higher speeds to inspire confidence.

Having said all that, however, it’s also true that the Cargo doesn’t feel quite as civilised or as sophisticated on the road as the passenger-carrying version of the ID.Buzz. The suspension has been fettled in order to meet the different weight-bearing requirements of the cargo-carrying version, and as a result, the ride feels firmer and more jittery. Like we say, though, it still compares well to most van rivals in terms of on-road polish.

For the first few years of its life, the ID Buzz was only available with one rear-wheel-drive powertrain. The motor - fed by a 77kWh battery pack - developed 201bhp, and the official 0–62mph acceleration time was given at 10.2 seconds. It felt a lot brisker than that, though, particularly when pulling away from the mark. On-the-move acceleration was a bit more sedate, but there was always enough urge to comfortably deal with pretty much any driving situation.

Significant changes came during the 2025 model year facelift (which happened in the second half of 2024), though. Battery capacity increased a little to 79kWh, but power increased a lot, right up to 282bhp, and the official 0-62mph time fell to 7.9 seconds.

At the same time, a twin-motor four-wheel-drive model, badged 4Motion, was also added to the range. This had an even higher power output of 335bhp, but despite that, Volkswagen’s own information said that this version had precisely the same 7.9-second 0-62mph sprint time. We thought this odd, and queried it with representatives of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, but bizarrely, nobody could give us a definitive answer as to whether this really was the case or not.

The same set of figures also suggested that the 4Motion model has a greater towing capacity than the rear-wheel-drive version, up from 1,200kg to 1,800kg.

Technology, equipment & infotainment

There is a choice of two trim levels for the ID.Buzz Cargo: entry-level Commerce and the upgraded Commerce Plus. The vehicle looks a little basic in Commerce specification, with black bumpers and steel wheels with plastic wheeltrims, but you do get front- and rear parking sensors, and heated, electrically adjusting door mirrors. Inside, meanwhile, you get climate control, cruise control, and heated front seats. That’s on top of all the infotainment and safety gear we talked about earlier.

The VW ID.Buzz Cargo Commerce Plus version looks quite a bit cooler (which is pretty much the whole appeal of the ID.Buzz) with body-coloured bumpers and alloy wheels, and it also adds other desirable features such as a heated windscreen, a leatherette steering wheel, power folding door mirrors and a reversing camera, plus a suite of extra ADAS driver assistance safety features including adaptive cruise control.

Both trim levels get the same basic infotainment system, which features a 12.9-inch touchscreen on the dashboard. On the Commerce, you get DAB radio, Bluetooth, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, plus four USB-C ports dotted around the cabin, while Commerce Plus trim gets satellite navigation on top. Voice control is an optional extra on both trims, though, which seems a bit mean.

It’s the same system that features in the majority of Volkswagen’s ID electric cars, and as a result, it has the same annoyances. Granted, many of the software glitches that afflicted early ID cars have now been rectified, but the annoying slider controls to adjust the temperature and volume still remain. If you get a pre-facelift example from before late 2024, these aren’t backlit, making them all but impossible to use at night. The facelift sorted that issue, though.

Compared to many such systems, the Volkswagen’s user interface is fairly easy to find your way around, and useful shortcut icons are on hand to quickly take you to the most-used functions. However, finding more peripheral functions can still be a little bit tricky. We’d prefer physical controls for the ventilation system, too.

Volkswagen ID.Buzz Cargo running costs

The new ID.Buzz Cargo is not cheap, certainly by the standards of the regular van market. Rock up to your local Volkswagen van centre to place an order, and - notwithstanding any ID.Buzz Cargo offers that might be on the table - regular brand new prices start at around £48,500 (inclusive of VAT) for the most basic version, or around £43,000 if you have eligibility for the Office of Zero Emission Vehicle’s Plug-in Van Grant (PiVG). Even with the discount, that’s a pretty eye-watering sum.

Specifying the 4Motion four-wheel-drive powertrain will cost you a further £2,000, and upgrading to Commerce Plus trim costs upwards of £5,000. That’s a very hefty chunk of cash.

With the right kind of use and charging behaviour, though, choosing the ID.Buzz instead of a regular diesel-powered alternative could stand to save you a fair few quid on fuel consumption. A full charge of the battery - regardless of whether it’s the 77kWh one or the later 79kWh one - will cost you around £22, assuming that you’re charging at home, and that your domestic electricity is priced at the UK’s national average rate. You can reduce that much further if you get yourself on a power tariff that allows you to charge your car overnight at a heavily discounted off-peak rate. That charge will take a little over 11 hours on a conventional 7.4kW home wallbox charger.

It’ll be much quicker to charge up at a public DC rapid charging station: a 10-80% top-up can be delivered in just 30 minutes. That’s thanks to a maximum DC charging speed of 170kW for the pre-facelift vehicle, rising to 185kW for the post-facelift ID.Buzz with the bigger battery. However, it’ll also be a lot more expensive - three times the price of a home charge at the national average price would not be a surprise - so we’d only advise using these public rapid chargers in an emergency.

And how far will a full charge get you? According to official WLTP figures, a pre-facelift ID.Buzz with the 77kWh battery will take you 256 miles before running out. In the post-facelift version with the bigger 79kWh battery, this increases to 275 miles, or 258 miles if you choose the 4Motion four-wheel-drive version. None of those figures sound particularly impressive compared to those of most electric vehicles, but by electric van standards, they’re actually very good.

Volkswagen ID.Buzz Cargo reliability

The ID.Buzz - whether it be passenger or Cargo - hasn’t yet featured in the What Car? Reliability Survey. However, the Electric Car section of the study, made up of 20 models, contained two cars featuring the same MEB architecture and many of the same parts, and these finished 5th (Cupra Born) and 7th (VW ID.3) in the class.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen placed 18th of the 31 carmakers in the overall manufacturer standings of the same study, which is a fairly middling result. On a more positive note, the three-year, 100,000-mile warranty you get on the ID.Buzz Cargo commercial vehicle is considerably better than the three-year, 60,000-mile cover you get on the firm’s passenger cars.