Deng Simiao posted from Passenger Temple
Reference to Intelligent Cars | Official Account AI4Auto
The price of Volkswagen’s electric van – ID.Buzz Pro – has been officially announced, selling for 64,581 euros in Germany, which is equivalent to 460,000 RMB.
The release of this car is a revival and revolution of the Volkswagen T1 model 70 years ago, described by Volkswagen’s CEO as a “legendary return”.
As early as 2017, the electric prototype concept car was displayed and garnered a large number of attention at that time, with tens of thousands of emails flooding Volkswagen’s CEO’s inbox, requesting Volkswagen to produce this car.
Now, after five years of anticipation, it has finally come out.
Built on the MEB platform and equipped with a 77kWh power battery, it has a range of up to 421 kilometers and is equipped with L2 level autonomous driving.
It seems that Volkswagen is determined not to be satisfied with merely “copying the past”, but achieving surpassing and revolutionizing.
What kind of car is this?
ID.Buzz, as a new member of the Volkswagen ID. family, is also built on the MEB platform. It was globally unveiled in March this year and pre-sales began on May 20 in Germany and most of Europe.
Two models are available: a 5-seater passenger car, ID.Buzz Pro, positioned as a family MPV, selling for 64,581.30 euros, equivalent to about 460,000 RMB.
The other model is a box-shaped commercial cargo van, ID.Buzz Cargo, which sells for 54,430.60 euros, equivalent to about 388,000 RMB.
In terms of appearance, the length, width, and height of ID.Buzz are 4712mm, 1985mm, and 1937mm, respectively, with a wheelbase of 2988mm and a turning radius of 11.1 meters, making it relatively agile to handle.
One of the highlights of this car is its very low wind resistance coefficient. The wind resistance coefficient of ID.Buzz Pro is only 0.285, while the wind resistance coefficient of the Cargo van is 0.29, which can reduce energy consumption and improve endurance.
In terms of interior design, the electric van has a very large storage space. The second-row seats can be folded down. The car has a volume of 1,121 liters when the seats aren’t folded down and a volume of up to 2,205 liters when they are.The trunk space of mainstream sedans is generally around 400-680 liters.
Equipped with a 10-inch central control screen, the car is quite small compared with Tesla’s 15.4-inch and Ideal’s 16.2-inch central control screens.
The steering wheel on the right side has two USB interfaces and also supports wireless charging of mobile phones.
In terms of power, the battery capacity reaches 77kWh (actually 82kWh), setting the highest record among the Volkswagen ID family. For example, the battery capacity of ID.4 CROZZ is only 55.7kWh, and the newly launched ID.6 CROZZ only reaches 62.6kWh.
In addition, the maximum power of the motor is 150kW, with a horsepower of 204. The range of the five-seater ID.Buzz Pro can reach 421 kilometers, while the range of the cargo van Cargo is 424 kilometers.
In terms of charging, it is stated by the official that it supports a maximum of 170kW DC fast charging, which can be charged from 5% to 80% in 30 minutes. It also supports a maximum of 11kW AC charging.
In terms of intelligent driving, unlike traditional vans, the ID.Buzz is equipped with Volkswagen’s Travel Assist L2 level autonomous driving system, which supports functions such as cruise control, emergency braking, highway automatic lane changing assistance, and memory parking. It also supports keyless entry.
Isn’t it a complete subversion of your imagination of “van”?
It is worth noting that the car is also equipped with Volkswagen’s Car2X technology, which has been recognized by the European New Car Safety Assessment Agency Euro NCAP.
Car2X is simply vehicle networking technology, which can upload current traffic conditions in real-time through the vehicle’s cellular data, so as to predict and evaluate the road conditions ahead, and also timely notify the following vehicles to pay attention to safety.
As for the hardware configuration, the official did not disclose it, but it is speculated that it should be similar to other models of the MEB platform, equipped with Mobileye EyeQ4 chip, with a single chip computing power of 2.5TOPS.
The car will start delivery in the fall of this year, and the long wheelbase version will be launched in the US market later.
The return of the legend?
Overall, Volkswagen’s electric van, whether in terms of range or intelligent driving, is not particularly outstanding in today’s electric vehicle market.So why is it receiving so much attention and expectation?
First of all, it represents the latest achievements of Volkswagen in the field of electric and intelligent vehicles.
As the newest member of the Volkswagen ID. family, the ID.Buzz should not be underestimated in terms of its strength and performance. After all, Volkswagen has been launching prototype concept cars since 2017, and has made rapid progress in the field of electrification in recent years.
The Volkswagen ID. family currently includes ID.3, ID.4, ID.6, and the patent image of ID.5 in China has already been revealed.
Secondly, the ID.Buzz is a “smart” resurrection of a classic, a continuation and a reproduction of its past glory.
As early as March 8, 1950, the Volkswagen T1 was officially put into production at the Wolfsburg factory in Germany. It was a box-shaped and versatile cargo van, and “T” stands for “Transporter” which is called “Bulli” in German and “Microbus” in the United States.
The design inspiration for this car came from Dutch businessman Ben Pon. At that time, he saw a transport flatbed truck in the Volkswagen factory and was inspired to design a closed elliptical structure based on the flatbed truck, which looks like a large loaf of bread.
This car is of extraordinary significance to Volkswagen. It was the second car model of Volkswagen after the Beetle, and the ancestor of the entire industry’s vans and MPV models that followed. Today, the T series has developed to its seventh generation, and the main selling point of this series is its low price and practicality.
Today, countless fans around the world still miss it, such as the T1 and original Beetle owners in Germany, France, and the UK. They gather in the historical town of Molsheim in Alsace, France every May to celebrate the birthday of these “antique cars”.
Nowadays, the silhouette of the Volkswagen T1 can also be found on roadside food trucks and ice cream trucks at many tourist attractions.
What do netizens think?## Will Fans Buy This 460,000 Yuan Electric Van for Rational Reasons?
Some people hope to see it introduced to China as soon as possible, saying “Why doesn’t China import such practical, good-looking cars? This kind of car would definitely sell like crazy. Domestic car brands don’t produce this kind of compact sliding door family car, it’s truly incomprehensible.”
Some people criticize its price, saying “Domestic electric small bread cars cost just over 100,000 yuan, how can ID.Buzz compete with them?”
Some people complain about its product positioning and range, saying “As a family car, it’s weird. As a commuter car, it’s too big. As a travel car, it can’t go far. As a cargo car, it’s not cheap. Although I quite like it, that’s all it is.”
Some even jokingly call it the pure electric version of the Touareg L, but the starting price of the fuel-powered Touareg L is only 116,800 yuan. Some say “Nothing beats my Wuling Hongguang.”
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that the Volkswagen ID.Buzz recently teamed up with the limited series of “Obi-Wan Kenobi” in Star Wars. The ID.Buzz will be appearing alongside the leading actor, Ewan McGregor, and the series will debut on May 27th.
While many Star Wars fans have hailed the collaboration as “fantastic,” the focus of discussion is not on this car.
Foreign netizens have also offered suggestions, “Do you want to seize the electric car market? Launch an electric version of the Beetle, priced at no more than 167,000 yuan, with a range of about 400 kilometers. Then you could sell millions of cars overnight.”
So, do you like this Volkswagen electric van? Are you willing to buy it out of sentiment? Welcome to leave a comment in the comment section.
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This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.