Volkswagen ID.Buzz on track for Australia in 2024; EV to overtake ICE locally by 2028

The electric version of the Volkswagen Kombi is coming to Australia in 2024 – and two examples have already hit the road.

Volkswagen has confirmed its ID.Buzz people mover and ID.Buzz Cargo van will go on sale here in less than two years, with some final box ticking and paperwork to be completed over the coming week.

The news of the imminent arrival of the ID.Buzz – which utilises the MEB architecture that also underpins the ID.3, ID.4 and ID.5 – comes as Volkswagen plans to significantly ramp up sales of electric vehicles over the next few years.

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The company says by 2028 it will be selling more EVs in Australia than vehicles powered by petrol or diesel engines.

With the Volkswagen ID.4 and ID.5 due on sale in 2023 and the ID.3 to follow in 2024, there’s a big few years ahead for the German brand – and the ID.Buzz is the model getting plenty of attention.

“The business case is fundamentally approved,” says Volkswagen Australia commercial vehicles director Ryan Davies of the ID.Buzz.

“There’s no reason why it wouldn’t happen. Once we get that technical approval – which hopefully will come before Christmas [2022] – then the next challenge will be availability of production.”

ID.Buzz to be a volume EV player

Indeed, the ID.Buzz will start off as a niche product from a volume perspective in Australia, but only because the company won’t initially be able to get many into the country due to booming global demand.

But longer term Volkswagen believe it can be a mainstream model – and even go on to steal sales off SUVs.

Volkswagen will offer people mover versions of the ID.Buzz, both as a five-seater with two rows of seats and a longer version with three rows of seats.
It will also be available as a single-motor rear-wheel drive or dual-motor all-wheel drive.

Volkswagen will also offer the ID.Buzz Cargo, which has just front seats and a large load area in the rear.

It will naturally compete with other popular vans such as the Toyota Hiace and Hyundai Staria Load, albeit with a price premium for the EV drivetrain.

But Volkswagen believes the people mover versions of the ID.Buzz have the potential to change the market dynamic, which for more than a decade has been dominated by SUVs.

“We think there will be a high proportion of people moving from SUVs into these vehicles,” says Davies.

Volkswagen even plans to deliver the ID.Buzz to Australian customers as a CO2 neutral vehicle.

“In Europe the ID.Buzz is actually handed over to the customer on a CO2 neutral basis,” says Davies, adding “our goal is to offer that same solution here”.

The big unknown with the ID.Buzz is pricing. The only hint Volkwswagen is giving is that it will have a premium price tag, although there will no doubt be benefits in lower running costs.

EVs to be the main game for Volkswagen from 2028

Volkswagen has been slow to EVs in Australia, but it plans to play catch up quickly.

The company says that while early supply of EVs will be a challenge – the company is banking on 6400 arriving here in 2024 – within a few years it expects electric cars to be among its top sellers.

And by 2028, Volkswagen says it will be selling more vehicles powered solely by electricity than those relying on petrol or diesel.

“By the time we roll into 2025 to 2030 we’ll be selling 150,000 EVs throughout this period,” says Ralph Beckmann, Volkswagen Australia general manager of marketing and product.

“By 2028 … EVs will be overtaking the ICE models in our portfolio.”

That’s quite the claim considering the brand’s top seller moving forward will be the Amarok ute, which is currently only available as an ICE.

Volkswagen plans to have an Amarok EV – known as the e-Amarok – available by 2026 or 2027, but it’s likely diesel will still be the fuel of choice for most ute buyers at that time. Before then, Volkswagen plans to be selling an Amarok PHEV, or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle.