New Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle 2025 review: makes 7-seater SUVs feel cramped

Verdict

Shared underpinnings with the Ford Transit Custom get the Volkswagen Transporter Shuttle off to a great start, making it a serious contender in the executive MPV class. Offering up to nine seats and plenty of luggage space even in short-wheelbase guise, it’s a seriously practical piece of kit. The e-Shuttle is also refined and smooth to drive, which should enamour passengers to its charms, while the option of diesel and plug-in hybrid models means there’s a version to suit everyone.

If you’re looking for a serious amount of space – the kind that even a car-based MPV can’t provide – then you should skip straight past the usual candidates and three-row SUVs, and seriously consider a van-based people carrier. It’s the most cost-effective way of bagging a vehicle that can carry up to nine people – and all their stuff – and do it with surprising levels of comfort and tech.

Vans such as the Volkswagen Transporter and Ford Transit Custom, and their Shuttle and Tourneo MPV-based offspring, have come a long way in the past decade. You’ll see phrases like “car-like handling” bandied around, and it’s not hard to see why after a day behind the wheel. Not only is the Shuttle good to drive, it’s also more refined than you’d imagine – but more on that later.

Along with being far posher than van-based MPVs of old, there’s also been a major push towards electrification. As a result, the Shuttle (and the Transporter it’s based on) comes with the choice of three diesel engines and two electric motors, and for the first time ever, a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) is arriving early next year. 

With a choice of front, rear or all-wheel drive and manual or automatic transmissions (partly dictated by which powertrain you pick), Volkswagen wants to cater to every buyer or fleet operator's requirements. If you don’t need nine seats, there’s also a Kombi version with rear seats ahead of the load compartment, high-roof vans and even a dropside and Transporter double-cab pick-up, although VW hasn’t confirmed which of these variants will be coming to the UK just yet.

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The Shuttle is part of VW’s wide range of MPVs, which starts with the five-seat Caddy and branches out to the Multivan and all-electric ID. Buzz. Measuring 5,050mm long, even the short-wheelbase Shuttle is a huge MPV, but it boasts an 11.9m turning circle that’s just one metre larger than a Golf’s – keeping it manoeuverable around town and at the airport terminal. Rivals include the Ford Tourneo Custom, Citroen e-Spacetourer, Vauxhall Vivaro Life Electric and classy Mercedes EQV.

The space inside the e-Shuttle is its main draw, with VW Commercial Vehicles VP for sales and marketing, Lars Krause telling Auto Express: “the Multivan is fully focused on private customers, while the Shuttle is really tailored to the commercial class”. There’s the option of eight or nine seats, and even sitting in the third row of the long-wheelbase version, a five-foot 10-inch adult’s knees will be nowhere near the seats in front. There’s still more room in the middle row, and access to the back seats is via sliding doors and seats that fold and tip. There are deep cup-holders for every outside seat, plus lots of places to charge mobile devices, while the driver’s seat has a 230-volt socket mounted in its base.

The boot is accessed via a vast tailgate, which doesn’t require too much effort to open or close, but will need plenty of space behind the vehicle to allow it to open. There’s a noticeably low loading height to make lifting in heavy suitcases a breeze, and even with all the seats in place, the boot is vast, measuring 696 litres or 1,211 litres in the long-wheelbase version.

As standard, the Shuttle gets a 12-inch digital instrument cluster and a 13-inch touchscreen, with Volkswagen’s infotainment software, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and over-the-air updates. It works well enough, but we’re not big fans of the touchscreen climate controls, which are fiddlier to use than the physical knobs in the old T6.1. Trims in the UK are Shuttle, Life and Style, with air-conditioning and a 10-speaker stereo as standard. Life adds features like body-coloured exterior bumpers, armrests, additional charging ports and 16-inch alloy wheels, while Style brings chrome trim, adaptive headlights, LED rear lights, privacy glass, 17-inch wheels, three-zone climate control and leatherette seats.

With a 64kWh battery, the e-Shuttle can manage just over 200 miles from a full charge. When you need to top up, it can take 11kW from a wallbox, or up to 125kW from a rapid charger, netting a 10 to 80 per cent charge in as little as 39 minutes. Those are similar stats to the closely related Ford, while the Citroen e-Spacetourer and Peugeot E-Traveller get a bigger 75kWh battery for a range of up to 217 miles. That’s not quite the end of the story, though, because Krause told us that a smaller ‘Urban’ battery is already in development for the VW, and a long-range version is also possible if there’s enough demand.

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Other engine options are 109bhp, 148bhp and 168bhp TDI 2.0-litre diesels, with a six-speed manual gearbox in the entry-level version; an eight-speed automatic is optional with the middle power output and standard in the range-topper, which can also come with four-wheel drive. While efficiency figures haven’t been released for the Shuttle yet, in the near-identical Transporter these return from 34mpg to 40.9mpg, with CO2 emissions between 181 and 222g/km. The PHEV arriving in 2026 will get a 2.5-litre petrol engine, an electric motor and a small battery pack, for an electric-only range of around 30 miles. Volkswagen reckons this will cater to urban-based customers who also need to drive longer distances at the drop of a hat.

Behind the wheel of the e-Shuttle, the first thing that strikes you is its impressive refinement. There’s just a faint hum from the electric motor ahead of the bulkhead and very little road noise, with the most noticeable disturbance as you gain speed being some buffeting from the big door mirrors – although we were driving along a breezy coastal road. There’s almost none of the play in the steering you’d expect from a van-based MPV, just a nicely positive response and only a small amount of body lean along the mountainous road we tackled.

The 282bhp/415Nm electric motor that’s set to arrive in the UK alongside 134bhp and 215bhp versions, feels sprightly off the line, but not as quick as its 7.4-second 0-62mph time suggests. The e-Shuttle isn’t exactly an MPV you race away from the lights, but it’s good to know that even with nine people and their luggage onboard, purposeful acceleration is still on tap – only the ID. Buzz GTX is quicker in VW’s MPV range. The motor feels calibrated to accelerate smoothly rather than with pin-sharp responsiveness, which suits the people-carrying brief. We did find the ‘B’ regenerative braking mode can lead to a nodding-dog sensation as you juggle the regen and physical braking in traffic, but the ‘one-pedal’ mode helps to take some strain out of driving in stop-start traffic.

Roads around Athens aren’t too much better than those in Britain, with plenty of scarred tarmac, potholes and camber, which the e-Shuttle’s compound rear axle mostly shrugged off with ease, even with just the driver aboard. If anything, the diesel rides even better and turns more sharply thanks to the lack of a heavy battery pack.