Volkswagen ID. Buzz - Range, charging and running costs

With prices starting from just over £59,000, the Volkswagen ID. Buzz isn't cheap to buy, and adding extra kit such as two-tone paint, larger 21-inch alloy wheels, and some other options will bump up the price further.

The ID. Buzz originally had just one powertrain using a 77kWh battery to power a single 201bhp electric motor that drives the rear wheels, with an official range of up to 258 miles. This improves to 283 miles with the more powerful electric motor and slightly larger 79kWh (useable) battery. The ID. Buzz with the most range is the Life Pro LWB with up to 291 miles of range due to its larger 86kWh (useable) battery. Range figures for the four-wheel drive GTX haven’t been released yet, but we’ll update this section when they are.

Electric range, battery life and charge time

During our first time out in the 77kWh ID. Buzz on a typical autumn day in the UK, which included a variety of driving situations, the electric MPV displayed an indicated range of 230 miles – just 28 miles short of the WLTP claimed figure, which isn’t too bad. 

However, like the vast majority of electric cars, range and efficiency in the ID. Buzz took a big hit in the colder months, which wasn’t helped by the lack of a heat pump on early versions. When we drove the ID. Buzz again in just above freezing temperatures, it managed 2.7mi/kWh, which translates to a real-world range of 208 miles. Our long-term experience with a 77kWh ID. Buzz Style backed that up, which averaged 2.7mi/kWh for efficiency. Hopefully, the revised version with its more efficient electric motor can improve upon this figure.

When it comes to time to ‘fill up’ the Volkswagen ID. Buzz, it can reach a maximum charging speed of 185kW for the SWB and 200kW for the LWB with the larger battery. If you find a suitably fast DC rapid charger for both versions, it’ll take around 30 minutes to top up the battery from 10-80 per cent capacity. 

There’s also been an upgrade to the battery management because you can now program in up to 10 charging stops on your route and the car will optimise the battery to accept the maximum rate of charge much faster when you go to plug in, potentially saving time in colder weather because you’re not waiting for the battery to heat up. Of course, you’ll need to use the car’s navigation system in order to take advantage of this feature.

Of course, when you’re not out and about and just want to charge up at home overnight, it’ll take more than 12 hours to charge up using a standard 7.4kW home wallbox to fully replenish the 77kWh battery in the ID. Buzz. Official AC charging times for the revised models haven’t been announced yet, but expect around 13 hours for the 79kWh model and 14 hours for the 86kWh version.

If you’re considering an untethered wallbox (one without a cable built-in), the ID. Buzz comes with a three-metre long Type 2 charging cable. VW also offers remote services that allow you to schedule charging and monitor battery capacity from afar.

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Tax

The Volkswagen ID. Buzz is exempt from road tax (VED) and the London Congestion Charge, at least until 2025. For company car drivers, it attracts a two per cent Benefit-in-Kind (BiK) tax rate, which is a lot more affordable than a traditional petrol or diesel car.

Insurance

The current Volkswagen ID. Buzz starts in insurance group 31 in entry-level Life trim, before going up to group 33 for the pricier Style. That’s significantly less than the Tesla Model Y, which lands in groups 46-49. That explains why when we ran the numbers for our group test, our representative insurance quote (as of the time of testing in March 2023) for the ID. Buzz in flashy Style trim was £618 a year, compared to £1,370 for the Model Y Long Range. 

Our slight caveat is that we don’t yet have insurance figures for the upcoming 282 bhp Pro and 335bhp GTX models. It’s likely that the insurance rankings for the ID. Buzz may increase with its bump in performance, but we’ll update this section when the information is released.

Depreciation

While not quite as strong as they once were, the predicted resale values of the Volkswagen ID. Buzz are among the best around, with our expert data suggesting it’ll retain around 62 per cent of its original value after three years or 36,000 miles. That puts it among some of the slowest depreciating cars currently on sale in the UK, only being beaten by the likes of the Toyota Land Cruiser, Porsche 911, Land Rover Defender, and Mercedes G-Class.

To get an accurate valuation of a specific model, check out our valuation tool...