Volkswagen has announced that its reborn electric Microbus, the ID.Buzz, will not have a 2026 model year. This is being treated as more of a break than a final cessation of sales, but no matter what it is, it’s not great news. It’s not shocking given the sales of the ID.Buzz and how it fits into the market, but personally, I can’t help but be a bit shocked at just how badly VW whiffed the opportunity to bring back one of its most iconic vehicles.
Here’s the quote that a VW spokesperson gave to Carscoops, which is pretty much the same statement given to Automotive News and other outlets:
“Following a careful assessment of current EV market conditions, we have made the strategic decision not to move forward with MY26 ID. Buzz production for the U.S. market.”
Of course, because they’ve been selling so slowly, you can very likely still buy one in 2026; it’ll just be one left over from 2025. But that’s fine, they’re non-perishable items.
The ID.Buzz should have been a slam dunk for Volkswagen. After the Beetle, the Microbus is Volkswagen’s most iconic product, one absolutely crammed full of cultural significance and dripping with nostalgia. Hell, it was the life preserver VW reached for in the aftermath of the Dieselgate scandal, because they knew it was the one bit of intellectual property they had that was almost universally seen in a positive light. Well, at least by people not stuck behind one.
Remember this commercial from right after Dieselgate?
Powerful stuff, right? At the time, the ID.Buzz seemed like exactly what VW needed. Optimistic, iconoclastic, and, significantly, a zero-emissions vehicle. The Dieselgate emissions-cheating scandal really forced VW’s hand into making the ID.Buzz a battery-electric vehicle, and while I think BEVs certainly have a place in the automotive landscape, a re-born Microbus was really not the ideal application.
The ID.Buzz has a range of about 234 miles on a full charge, and while that’s not terrible for many applications, it’s a huge limiting factor for a modern Microbus. The whole point of a Microbus is that it should be a fantastic road trip vehicle. You go on adventures in a Microbus, often spontaneous ones, ones that don’t necessarily pass by EV charging stations every two and a half hours.
I know this because I tried taking a road trip in one, and it was frustrating. It was frustrating because it was a fantastic vehicle for a nice long road trip in almost every way – roomy, comfortable, quick, plenty of cargo room – except, realistically, you have to stop every 150 miles or so. And that’s not great.
But it’s not just EV range issues; it’s so much more. The ID.Buzz is just too damn expensive. They were starting around $60,000, and at this moment, the cheapest one we could find was $44,500, which is still too damn expensive.
The whole point of the original VW Type 2 was that it was an affordable, cheap-to-run, do-anything machine. It was a commercial cargo van, a family hauler, a mobile drug den, a camper, a food truck, a rolling den of vice or virtue or whatever the hell you wanted.
But that’s not what VW built. VW built an expensive nostalgia machine with needlessly limited abilities, something that was inherently limited from the get-go. Being a battery-electric vehicle, it could never be as cheap as it needed to be, and it would be at the mercy of the charging infrastructure, which, let’s be honest, still isn’t where it needs to be.
What’s really frustrating is that VW got a new Microbus right over 20 years ago. The very first new Microbus concept of 2001 was exactly the vehicle VW needed to make: a cooler minivan.
That’s really it! That’s all they had to do: build an affordable minivan with a bit of personality, a personality that had already been established for decades and decades by the original bus.
The bus started life as a box on wheels. And that’s all it ever wanted to be, which is why it worked. A box on wheels can be anything you want it to be; and, as a result, that wheeled box becomes everything you want.
If the ID.Buzz was actually true to the original mission of the Microbus, I think VW would be in a very different situation than they are in now. What if it was, say, a hybrid minivan that looked and felt cooler than, say, a Toyota Sienna or Honda Odyssey, and cost about the same? No gimmicks are needed, beyond the baseline gimmick of a modern minivan that looks and feels like the old Microbus.
It’s all such a shame. There have been few recent cars I’ve wanted to be a success or more excited about than this resurrected VW Type 2. And it seems like VW has completely dropped the ball on this one.
Maybe the Buzz will come back to America after 2026. Maybe it’ll come back in some improved fashion? The dream would be for it to come back de-contented, with an auxiliary combustion engine to act as an EREV, and somehow sell for something under $40,000. Of course, I did say that’s a dream.
Top graphic images: Volkswagen
What’s with those people wearing sweaters and pants at the beach? Are they resting their feet on a spare tire? That’s kinda gross. Do they not like sand? Why go to the beach then?
I noticed this as well but I believe the intent of the spare is to be a base for the impromptu table.
Mirroring what many others have said, it just felt very ‘corporate Volkswagen’ and didn’t really have any of the charm the, say, new Beetle had. Round headlights would have helped save this thing a little bit, and get it to the cute side of the car spectrum.
And the name, why not I.D. BUSS?
Even the 2001 concept’s headlights would be a big improvement. The lower half of the front is vastly better too. The pinched back headlights and lattice grill is just as ugly here as it is on a Lexus.
It also needed round headlights. without 2 tone paint these do not really look like a reimagination of the old ones, and that’s a huge miss when the cheap ones are all monochrome. So many poor choices made in making this thing.
Hybrid minvans like the Sienna, Pacifica and Carnivàle are selling like hotcakes, if the VW had a range extending engine and a reasonable MSRP it would too, but VW can’t seem to stop shooting itself in the dick.
For most of us who frequent this site, that concept came out “half a life” ago, or more. It’s way past time since that ship sailed.
Price. Not offering an ICE option.
That’s it. The rest of the words didn’t matter.
One of the most important problems I believe wasn’t mentioned in the article: why the hell this thing has to have angry headlights? If you want to sell something different from the mainstream riding on nostalgia why this has to have the same face than any other current VW product? There is no sense nor reason for this to look like it does. In monochrome one really has to use one’s imagination to make a connect for the og VW Typ 2.
Exactly. It needed to, at the very least, have round headlights and vertical taillights if it were to have any hope in hell of recreating the original. I’ve been saying this since the first concept rendering from 25 years ago.
The propulsion system and cost only drove the stake in that much further…
The only good thing is VW never attached the Microbus name to this misstep. Its almost like they knew it was going to flop and didn’t want to tarnish the reputation.
The unpopularity of the ID Buzz was a bit of a shock to me, but then I remembered I live in the DC metro area, so it’s not uncommon for me to see more expensive, eco-conscious cars around, like BMW i3s, i8s, Audi eTrons, Cybertrucks (ugh), etc. I see at least a couple ID Buzzes every week, and I could see one every day if I walk by the VW dealership in town, which always has them on display. I guess in other parts of the country, they’re probably rarely or never seen.
I live in the middle of the bubble, inside the beltway even, yet I never see them.
Another eff up from VW.
I owned a 63 VW campervan back in 1978. The reason it was a hit was because it was a a lot of car for little bit of money. Sure it was underpowered, had no real heater, and the driver was the crumple zone in a head on accident, but it was cheap, looked cool, and worked, and you could repair it with a minimal tool kit and book written for idiots.
The ID Buzz is an overpriced ticket to nostalgia for people with more money than sense. If the VW microbus had cost as much as Lincoln Continental when it arrived in the US it never would have sold either.
It was totally just two window switches from immortality.
/s
They need to save face, take a year or two and put out a VW Buzz Type 2 (play on the original name to make a corrected version of this thing). Utilize the electric with extended range like the Scout is teasing). Sell this as a super base cargo van. I’m thinking hard interior with some sort of rail system. Then the buyer adds in options that connect to the rails. Want to keep it as a “cheap” cargo van or DIY van life build, go for it. Want a nicer camper van with VW branded components, sure. Want to make it that minivan, easy enough buy the seats that slide into the rails etc. you could then have the option to switch the van’s main purpose by simply sliding in/out the accessories. This would continue as a larger version of where the Honda Element left off, a lifestyle vehicle of sorts. At 48 the original microbus was before my day, but this feels closer to the original’s spirit than simply making a nostalgic minivan.
It would take more than a year or two to develop a range-extender version. This was never designed to accept any form of gas powerplant at all. It’s not like can easily just plop on in there.
Yeeeeah probably was too over simplified in my comment and not possible in such a short period. The issue (in my opinion) is the Buzz falls too short in what a lot of people want (an awesome road trip vehicle) at too high a cost. I’d love the Buzz to be a platform vs a vehicle, in how I mentioned originally. Start with a base box and add on options/accessories to suit your needs.
One can try walking into Galpin (they have three on display right out on Roscoe Blvd) and offer $30K for one. Nothing to lose. Well, except $30K when they give you the fob.
The ID Buzz seems to be a vehicle specifically designed to appeal to auto journalists and no one else (ok I think they can look cool). Whenever I’ve shown one to a genpop consumer they’ve been not interested, yet every article, youtube video etc about it is about how everyone would buy one if only it was priced right.
While I agree the pricing was very wrong, I don’t see how people would choose this over a Sienna if they needed a true minivan or a crossover if they just wanted space.
Would it have been better as a rex or hybrid? absolutely. But I think just in general, people have lost their sense of whimsy that a brightly colored, esoteric, bus looking van could bring.
I am probably in the minority, but I disagree. The market is saturated with 3-row crossovers because people have deemed the minivan uncool in a way that it can’t seem to recover. I think the ID Buzz is just different enough to shed the frumpy minivan image. It’s not a minivan, it’s a microbus. We may never know, but if it were competitive, I think it would have done well.
From my own anecdotal experience, the minivan image is recovering. My son in his 20’s just bought one as he starts a family. More and more people I talk to are appreciating the minivan’s functional superiority over the overpopulated crossovers.
My own circle is a mixed bag, two friends with families are planning a second child and contemplating new large family vehicles. One family is pretty firmly in the no minivan camp currently shopping Grand Highlanders, the other is minivan curious and I think they will ultimately get there.
I, of young child parenting age, know many people who are choosing to not get a crossover and instead get a minivan. Not the majority or anything but more than I’d have said I knew 5 years ago.
My bias maybe, but this seems like a van that would do much better in europe than the states.
Still flogging them in France but only as five or seven seaters, or cargo vans, no campers on offer.
Which is stupid, because the are still people making good livings renting out old VW campers.
Even Westphalia has converted Ford vans as its star model now…
That’s very funny, about the fords.
This is a truly excellent article and reminded me of just how misguided Volkswagen appears to be these days-Audi is floundering ,Porsche stock is in the dumps and they have yet to recover overall in terms of a practical product strategy -I say this as a very long term Porsche and occasional VW buyer.
They made a big mistake with EV tech and thought demand was in a place it just is not. Also, the price. It’s always the price.
The VW Bus is like Calvin and Hobbes’ Transmogrifyer box: It could turn into anything. VW corporate decided to use that box to tease me for my entire adult life and then release a plastic tupperware version that is crap. I’m 49 and am at the tail end of people who remember the original enough to care. While finally at a point where I *could* buy a VW Bus, I would never consider this ID Buzz. There are two at a dealer here in Maine. I should go offer them $10-15K for one. They will tell me it’s a limited run vehicle and know what they have and mark it up from the $72k on the window sticker by another 30%.
Add a gas engine and come in under 40K? What are you smoking, Jason?
I wonder what would have been the better decision from VW:
– Selling the ID.Buzz in the US, and getting all the negative press and reader’s comments.
– Keeping away it from the US, and getting all the negativity from the same people for not selling it there.
I already wrote it in one of my comments under another article, that I think this had to be fully electric. VW has other vans that are ICE powered or PHEVs (and somehow none of them are available in America), plus the 95 g/km CO2 emission rules in the EU took affect around 2020 (when the Taycan, the first MEB cars, some small electric Peugeots/Opel-Vauxhalls came to market), and 0 g is what’s best to make the corporate average lower.
(And I have my own problem with VW: they just released a Polo trim level that makes it cost the same as a Sandero. A few days later they announced there will be no new small ICE VWs in the future – with that they almost completely destroyed my newfound enthusiasm.)
It doesn’t matter. It was priced incorrectly and potential buyers looked elsewhere.
VW had no idea who was going to buy this.
Minivan buyers weren’t going to get one, the Honda and Toyota vans are cheaper and better.
What they really needed to realize is that it was MUCH more likely to be purchased by someone solely for the nostalgia. By people who wouldn’t normally want or need a minivan, or the space offered by one. They just want a funky blue and white van and are ok with it being a bit of a luxury (but aren’t loaded).
So it really needed to be cheaper. There should have been popular trims in the $30 – $40k range. And they should have brought the short wheelbase over. And given it an actual marketable name. Who ever the person at VW is that thinks ID.* is a good idea needs to be fired pronto. With those improvements, I bet it would have been popular amongst empty-nesters.
Instead, they priced it against premium SUVs and tried to pretend that it was as good as an Odyssey.
I have no insight into VW’s executive management, but my instincts tell me they view the company as a highly technical, rather sophisticated organization that makes vehicles for the more intelligent, progressive consumer who possesses the taste to discern the superiority of a Golf to a Corolla.
Unfortunately for those current execs, the ad agency DDB cemented Volkswagen in the USA as a self deprecating, friendly brand in 1960 with the “Think Small” campaign that included the famous “Lemon” ad featuring the Beetle. That campaign was perfect. It was foundational. It is bedrock. My guess is they dislike this uniquely American perspective of their brand and find it somehow demeaning, so they have tried, in every possible way, to put distance between this idea and the vehicles they have produced since the ’80s. That’s why the new bus sucks.
ha ha, decisions in 1960 by an ad agency aren’t the problem. VW’s had plenty of ad successes post 1960.
It’s the price. Here’s what marketing people say: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/four-ps.asp
I think they really deeply misunderstand the US market. It’s something that Cammisa has talked about in some of his videos, but VW has been really good at coming up with a hail mary that saved the company in the US (i.e. Golf, New Beetle) when they really needed to not be in that position in the first place. Right now, they actually needed the ID.Buzz to work out better than they’re letting on because nearly everything else has been a mistake (dieselgate, electrify america, interior design, ID everything).
At least the GTI is still good.
“The ID.Buzz should have been a slam dunk for Volkswagen.”
In my opinion, the style is wrong, the spec is unimpressive and the name is stupid.
In terms of pricing… in Canada, the pricing is actually not bad… they start at CAD$60K. But that’s the price now. Initially it was priced at CAD$80K… which was nuts.
The problem is, the pricing in the USA is… US$60K… which is like CAD$83,000.
So… more expensive than in Canada right now
Some observations on VW’s photography:
If the family camping with the green Bus really had bright lights such as those turned on inside their van, the swarms of flying insects would be driving them crazy.
If the trumpet player were really playing his trumpet in that position, the saliva and moisture from his breath would accumulate in the mouthpiece, which is as gross as it sounds. In a normal playing position, it would accumulate below the first bend in the tubing, where there is a “spit valve” to let it out.
Third and final observation: The original Bus had a sturdy metal bumper. The first concept has a rounded plastic-covered bumper. The ID Buzz has a mesh plastic non-bumper, which will result in a very expensive repair bill after the first most minor of front-end mishaps.
PS: In the last photo, how many of you would rather take a spin in the Citroen instead of the overpriced VW?