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The all-electric VW ID. Buzz Pro has arrived in Australia, priced from AUD$87,990 plus on-road costs. Its brother, the VW ID. Buzz Cargo (from AUD$79,990 plus on-road costs) might be the pick of the bunch for florists, tradies, and delivery companies, but it’s the Pro model (people mover) that channels all of the old-school T1 vibes with its optional contrasting paint and retro-modern looks. We attended the launch of the new VW ID. Buzz in Newcastle to get behind the wheel of the most exciting VW release in years, and here’s everything we liked, and some things we didn’t, about the new VW ID. Buzz Pro.
RELATED: 2024 VW Touareg R Review.
How Much is the VW ID. Buzz Pro?
Here’s how much the VW ID. Buzz Pro costs in Australia:
- VW ID. Buzz Pro SWB (5-seater) – from AUD$87,990 plus on-road costs
- VW ID. Buzz Pro LWB (7-seater) – from AUD$91,290 plus on-road costs
- VW ID. Buzz GTX LWB (7-seater) – form AUD$109,990 plus on-road costs (Q2, 2025)
It’s not a small amount of money, but when you consider the ID. Buzz Pro costs €64,581 (AUD$106,000) in Germany where it’s made, it’s a sharp price for what is a unique vehicle in the market. That said, the options available for the ID. Buzz Pro can add up very quickly.
Here’s how much the options for the VW ID. Buzz Pro costs in Australia:
- Exterior Options
- Two-Tone Paint: $4,090
- Metallic Paint: $1,890
- Pearl Effect Paint: $1,890
- 21″ Bromberg Alloy Wheels (Black, diamond-turned): $1,900
- Electric Open/Close Tailgate: $890
- IQ. Light – LED Matrix Headlights: $2,100
- Illuminated Moulding Between Headlamps: $490
- Sound-insulation with Laminated Safety Glass: $990
- Interior Options
- Panoramic Sunroof with Smart Glass: $3,290
- Seat heating (front seats, outer seats in 2nd row, individually controllable): $290
- Interior Style Plus Package Seaqual Trim: $3,790
- 30-color ambient lighting
- Armrests on both sides of front seats
- Black bezel for central controls
- Comfort seat on the left and right in 1st row of seats
- Door trim panel in plastic with insert, armrest in leatherette
- Front seats with massage feature
- Inserts of front seats and outer rear seats in Seaqual® fabric
- Leather-wrapped multi-function steering wheel with touch control, heated
- Pneumatically-adjustable lumbar support in front, with massage feature
- Power seats in front with memory feature and driver seat with Smart Comfort entry aid
- Reinforced carpet floor covering (tufted velour)
- Seat heater for front seats, separately controllable
- Premium Interior Style Plus Package: $4,290
- 30-color ambient lighting
- Armrests on both sides of front seats
- Black bezel for central controls
- Comfort seat on the left and right in 1st row of seats
- Door trim panel in plastic with insert, armrest in leatherette
- Front seats with massage feature
- Inserts of front seats and outer rear seats in ArtVelours ECO microfleece
- Leather-wrapped multi-function steering wheel with touch control, heated
- Pneumatically-adjustable lumbar support in front, with massage feature
- Power seats in front with memory feature and driver seat with Smart Comfort entry aid
- Reinforced carpet floor covering (tufted velour)
- Seat heater for front seats, separately controllable
- Infotainment and Technology
- Infotainment Package Plus:
- Head-Up Display with Harman Kardon Sound System: $2,200
- Infotainment Package Plus:
- Functional Options
- Luggage Area Load Platform with Net Partition: $1,300
- Terminal Block: $290
The Two-Tone Paint ($4,090), Panoramic Sunroof with Smart Glass ($3,290), Interior Style Plus Package Seaqual Trim ($3,790), and Head-Up Display with Harman Kardon Sound System ($2,200) would be the most desirable options. However, they would balloon the price of a VW ID. Buzz Pro LWB to $104,660 (+$13,370) before on-roads. If you add the IQ. Light LED Matrix Headlights ($2,100) you’re right around that $106,000 price.
The main competitors to the all-electric VW ID. Buzz Pro in Australia come from China, namely the LDV Mifa 9 (from AUD$104,000 plus on-roads) and the Zeekr 009 (from AUD$135,900 plus on-road costs). You could also add the Mercedes-Benz eVito Tourer (from AUD$116,117 plus on-roads) into that conversation but it’s prohibitively expensive and showing signs of age.
To find an equally priced competitor in the people mover category you have to look at combustion-engined alternatives, which include the Ford Tourneo (from AUD$65,990 plus on-roads), Hyundai Staria (from AUD$67,500 plus on-roads), Kia Carnival (from AUD$56,050 plus on-roads), Lexus LM (from AUD$165,888 plus on-roads), and Mercedes-Benz V-Class V300 (from AUD$143,809 plus on-roads). However, it’s only really the Kia Carnival and Staria that you should be cross-shopping, and neither of these has the kerb-appeal of the VW ID. Buzz Pro or the electric powertrain.
What is the Interior of the VW ID. Buzz Pro Like?
The interior of the VW ID. Buzz Pro is comfortable, pragmatic, and tech-heavy, and was all-around a very nice place to sit during our drive from Newcastle to Sydney. When you consider that most people will be buying the Buzz for its design, we think they’ve nailed it on the inside with the right balance of technology and practical storage.
You’ll be happy to find features like tri-zone climate control with vents in the second and third row, electric rear sliding windows in passenger doors, ambient lighting with 10 colours (30 colours optional), seven USB-C ports, wireless phone charging, and a tray table with a cup holder alongside the standard ID. Buzz Box. This Buzz Box is located between the driver’s seat and the passenger seat giving you additional storage that you can remove from the car and take with you to the beach or the local park for a picnic.
Touch points are generally soft, especially around the armrests, but become hard plastics with scratchy materials further down the doors. The test car photographed in this article features the Premium Interior Style Package ($4,290) which adds ArtVelours ECO microfleece seats amongst other things. They’re comfortable seats, and we highly recommend choosing one of the optional interiors over the standard kit. However, in a car this expensive, we think the optional seats should be leather. The more time we spend with eco-conscious materials, the more we dislike them, and that’s especially true for luxury cars. You can find quality leather in the cheapest cars coming out of China, but you can’t get them in a car two or three times the price.
Nonetheless, these optional seats are powered in the front with a memory feature, heated with massage, and feature armrests.
Technology is headlined by the 12.9-inch touchscreen in the centre of the cabin that comes with wireless CarPlay and Android Auto. Unveiled in November last year, it’s the same unit that you’ll find in ID. 4 and ID. 5, and arrives with a completely new menu structure along with touch sliders for air conditioning and volume control that we found easy enough to use while driving.
Sound is taken care of by a 9 speaker sound system (5 in front and 4 in the rear), and the optional Infotainment package Plus ($2,200) adds a head-up display and Harman Kardon audio. Our test car was equipped with later and it sounds great, but is probably an unnecessary option box.
We’d save the money and choose the optional panoramic roof with smart glass ($3,290). It works in a similar way to those systems found in McLaren and Lotus with a switchable liquid crystal foil that’s operated on a slider to adjust how much natural sunlight comes into the car. ON mode indicates the clear switched state of the PDLC film with power applied, while OFF mode indicates power isn’t applied to the PDLC film.
Space-wise, there’s enough room to fit comfortably behind my 6-foot self in the second-row, and the third-row has a similar amount of space in the LWB variant.
It’s important to mention here that the ID. Buzz Pro weighs around 2,795kg, which doesn’t leave much room for passengers due to the 529-545kg of payload on offer, depending on your specifications. You’ll quickly overwhelm the GVM of the vehicle if you’re carrying multiple full-size adults.
If you’re primarily using the ID. Buzz Pro as a people mover, we highly recommend the optional Multi-flex board with two storage boxes (as pictured) which is available as part of the Premium Interior Style Package ($6,970). It’s a great place to store your charging cables, but more importantly, it makes the load area flat.
The standard luggage area is a basic floor with 306mm of space behind the third row (LWB) and 1,121mm of space behind the second row (SWB). VW says there are 306 litres of space with all three rows folded up in the LWB, and when you fold them all down there’s a substantial amount of floor length to load things along the flat back of the seats, 2,232mm (SWB) and 2,469mm (LWB).
What is the Power, Range, and Charging Like for the VW ID. Buzz Pro?
| VW ID. Buzz Pro SWB | VW ID. Buzz Pro LWB | |
| Drive | Rear Wheel | Rear Wheel |
| Peak power | 210 kW | 210 kW |
| Torque | 560 Nm | 560 Nm |
| Top speed | 160 km/h | 160 km/h |
| Towing capacity | 1,200 kg | 1,200 kg |
The VW ID. Buzz Pro is powered by a single rear-mounted electric motor that produces 210 kW of power and 560 Nm of torque. This makes it a surprisingly quick vehicle in a straight line, and we were able to verify the manufacturer’s claimed 0-100km/h time of 7.9 seconds during our test drive.
| VW ID. Buzz Pro SWB | VW ID. Buzz Pro LWB | |
| Battery size | 79/84 kWh | 86/91 kWh |
| Range | 422 km | 452 km |
| Charging power | 185 kW DC/ 11 kW AC | 200 kW DC/ 11 kW AC |
| Charging time 0-100% (AC) | 7 h 30 min | 7 h 30 min |
| Charging time 5%-80% (DC) | 30 min | 30 min |
| Consumption | 20.7 kWh/100 km | 21.1 kWh/100 km |
The VW ID. Buzz Pro has been available in global markets for a few years now, and as such, the battery and range are not at the leading edge of the market. Still, the 422 km of range you get in the SWB, and the 452 km of range you get in the LWB are good for travel around town during the week.
You may encounter some issues if you plan on travelling interstate with the family around key holiday periods, as not only do public chargers become quite busy, but the ID. Buzz Pro only charges from 5%-80% (DC) in 30 minutes. This is about average for a 400V vehicle, but more 800V vehicles are entering the market, and you might find that the technology in your expensive new people mover finds itself out of date during the ownership period. VW certainly won’t update it anytime soon, but new players might emerge.
If you don’t already have a wall charger at home, VW and AmpCharge have partnered up to sell you either an AmpCharge 7kw White wall charger ($1,399) or an AmpCharge 7kw Flash ($699) both of these are priced exclusively for VW Customers purchasing iD vehicles. The AmpCharge 7kw can be further customised by your choice of matching VW ID. Buzz colours for the front panel of the charger.
How Does the VW ID. Buzz Pro Drive?
Due to the low centre of gravity and 210kW of instantaneous power on tap from the rear electric motor, the VW ID. Buzz Pro is a surprisingly quick people mover. It’s far from the ultimate definition of fast, but it can get out of it’s own way better than its competitors, and with a 0-100km/h time of around 8 seconds it won’t leave you wishing for more.
It’s essentially a large electric box with wheels at each corner, so we were expecting average ride quality. However, even with the optional 21-inch wheels attached to our test car, it surprised us with a compliant ride around town and smoothness on the highway. You could comfortably take the ID. Buzz Pro is on a longer road trip and live with it every day. It’s not at the level of the Lexus LM, which is practically an S-Class in a van suit, but it’s very good.
Steering would feel familiar to anyone who’s driven a modern VW. It has good weight and it’s easy to tell where the front wheels are pointing, which is important when you’re maneuvering a 4,962 mm long vehicle. You could critique it for being a little overly weighted, but it’s far from a deal breaker.
The brake and accelerator pedal are both weighted correctly, but we’d like to see some stronger regenerative braking in ‘B’ mode. The ID. Buzz Pro is not capable of one-pedal driving, and while the efficiency of this system is up for debate, we simply find one-pedal driving more convenient around town.
VW claims a combined consumption of 21.1 kWh/100 km for the LWB variant and 20.7 kWh/100 km for the SWB. We spent time driving the LWB model on both motorways and backroads and managed to get around 23 kWh/100 km, so it’s likely VWs claimed range figure is accurate in the real-world. More testing would have to be done around town, however.
Visibility out of the front windscreen is outstanding, even though you sit further back in the ID. Buzz Pro than a traditional van. There’s also plenty of visibility over the shoulder, but only a limited amount out the rear due to the headrests. It would be great to find a digital rearview mirror, but alas, that’s not an option.
How Safe is the VW ID. Buzz Pro?
The VW ID. Buzz Pro is a very safe vehicle, carrying a five-star safety rating from Euro NCAP based on testing conducted in 2022. That said, ANCAP has not announced a local safety rating for Australia. Here’s how it scored in Europe:
- Adult occupant protection – 92 per cent
- Child occupant protection – 87 per cent
- Vulnerable road user protection – 60 per cent
- Safety assist – 90 per cent
There are several safety features in the ID. Buzz, they include:
- Adaptive cruise control with Stop & Go
- Lane keep assist and lane change assist
- Park Distance Control (PDC) with front and rear sensors
- Emergency Assist and autonomous city braking
- Multi-collision brake and rear traffic alert
- Dynamic high beam with cornering lights
We had a chance to test out the ACC, lane keep assist, and lane change assist, and they worked very well on the highway. While it’s hard to test the flaws of systems like this on public roads, they worked as intended, and at least as well as the systems in the Tiguan R that we were driving that same week.
Man of Many’s Verdict on the VW ID. Buzz Pro
The VW ID. Buzz Pro is spacious, well-appointed, comfortable, efficient for its size and weight, and a bonafide headturner.
It’s the clear choice for those who are after an all-electric people mover. However, we think it will even pull a few buyers from the three-row SUV market because of its looks, interior space, and driving characteristics.
There are still questions about whether or not buyers are willing to make their family hauler an electric vehicle, especially one with around 400km of real-world range, but that’s certainly not an issue for homeowners in and around major cities where this vehicle will become very popular.
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