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
I had a ’79 VW camper, and though it was quirky (i.e.: mostly electrical and exhaust issues) it was generally fixable with duct tape and wire, and/or a few hammer blows. I miss it, though of course it was a bit of deathtrap on wheels (especially for the driver and front-seat passenger) but it was so useful for trips that you really didn’t mind the glacial progress going uphill.
I can’t imagine VW of today recreating that kind of spark in any new vehicle. It’s not just that everything today must be so much heavier, and feature-laden, and efficient, but VW itself has been over-complexifying products for decades now… the Mark 3 water-cooled cars were that last ones I can remember which seemed bearable to own and maintain when they were 25 years old.
Good riddance. Could have been awesome but VW did everything wrong on this. Fire the product manager.
The old site had an article a few months ago about how much disassembly is required just to change the cabin air filter. I had a ’73 bus in high school, so I feel the nostalgia, but this deserves to die.
Interesting vehicle, but I’ve only ever seen 2 in passing.
In contrast, I see Tesla Cybertrucks nearly every day and I’m thinking these Tesla’s are relatively rare.
Another thing the ID.BUZZ (God, that name. Wooof.) gets wrong: it’s freaking huge for what is supposed to be a modern take on the classic Microbus. It may have available two-tone colors, but the sheer scale of it ruins whatever fun, retro vibe it was trying to capture.
I will also keep banging the drum that they should’ve done an ID.4-based van. It’d be at a more mass market price point, it would probably outsell the ID.4 that no one particularly cares about, the limited range is less of a hard sell on something cheaper (also, the smaller size would appeal more to smaller urban families to whom less range is less of an issue). Also, just the original Bus was sold here as a compact alternative to large suburban station wagons, where the Buzz is the same size as an Atlas (your contemporary large suburban station wagon).
From my armchair perspective, there’s no real money in building a truly modern VW microbus, only in selling the look. The buyers who actually want something simple and cheap aren’t profitable enough, and there aren’t enough well-heeled, nostalgic buyers who want the original concept rather than just the aesthetic.
However, I applaud VW’s swing for the fences.
I imagine a lot of VW folks were saying/thinking “it’s gonna be just like the Beetle!”
I dunno if this really was a swing for the fences. Aside from the exterior styling, what’s there to get excited about? It’s like they took a normal van and put a colorful candy shell on top of it. For such a cultural icon, it deserved more.
Let’s build an overpriced EV instead of an affordable mild hybrid. What could go wrong?
It certainly didn’t help any that VW imported way too many monotone colored ones and not enough two-tones. VW was paying dealers to add custom wraps to make them more colorful.
If would be pretty pissed if what I thought was paint turned out to be wrap, especially at that price point.
Supposedly the factory had a limited capacity for two tone (not sure why they couldn’t change that). A huge part of this mistake was letting it be built by their commercial vehicle group in what turns out is the most expensive factory VW has. Evidently that alone added about $5k to the price.
This was so utterly predictable. The company’s lack of insight and the manner in which they heartily whiffed seems similar to how Honda missed on the new Prelude. I wonder if they are really just guessing poorly, or if it’s hubris.
VW missed their window. If the Microbus had dropped in the mid oughts, without the glass transaxle of the T4 Eurovan, it would have sold respectable. Instead VW had no van, followed by the cynical and unpronouncable Routan. The bridge is burnt and the id.Buzz sells like warm beer in July
One of the big error VW made is the fact that they sell it only as a car (with two or 3 rows of seats). (the other ones have already been ciited by others)
The original could be a 2/3 rows vehicle, but it was also sold with an empty rear area, with metal panels instead of windows on the rear, with a massive bed or as a camping car… straight from the factory. And with various number of doors.
If they had been true to the Type the ID.Buzz should have been built with all the above options in mind, and not just as a 2/3 row car.
They sell a commercial version, maybe not in the USA though
It would be perfect for many routes of the US Postal Service.
I never understood the need for this thing when VW already had, and continues to have the perfect van…. the Transporter. That’s the practical box on wheels that does it all, from cargo to camping.
Besides, the retro van that we all want now is not the Microbus, it’s the classic Westfalia/Vanagon from the 80s. The Boomers had their shot and are aging out… you gotta play to the Gen X/Millennial crowd now with this stuff. I want the California dammit.
This. The ID.Buzz is Boomer bait, and it was 15-20 years too late for that. Had it come out during the retro craze that gave us the T-bird, PT Cruiser, SSR, Beetle, and others I am forgetting, it would have sold well.
The reality is this is a European car. It’s in high demand there, frequently selling out in countries such as Germany and Norway. It makes sense to discontinue sales here and concentrate all production for that market.
The two reasons most noted for its US failure among commenters to Jason’s article are short range and high price. Range is less of an issue in Europe because their countries are smaller. For the most part, Americans could readily adapt to its range limits for the majority of our daily use, but we’re kind of a worst case use nation of buyers. Large pick up trucks bias reflects this mindset as does the preference for big powerful engines. We rarely, if ever, use these vehicles to their potential because it isn’t needed (talking as family haulers here), but we want it and that’s OK.
Price – also as noted by many – is somewhat high as a subset of all cars, but not compared to just EVs as a class. The real problem with price here in the US is that we haven’t generally ever accepted VW as a maker of upmarket cars and that perception persists even though they haven’t been the cheap bug/bus company for decades. Even, Europeans appreciate cheap cars, fun cars and the fact that the ID.Buzz is a sales hit there indicates they see it as an upmarket vehicle for which they are willing to pay. If there’s an analogue here in the states, it’s big three row, luxury SUVs, which is not a class where we slot the ID.Buzz in large measure because of our relationship with its ancestors. That, too, is VW’s fault because that’s how they presented it to American consumers.
If the ID.Buzz does resume sales in the US it’ll be because of a sudden, massive shift by American consumers to buy just the car they need, not the car they fantasize coupled with a perception change of VW as an upscale brand. Those consumers do exist here, but they aren’t in the majority. And it would probably take an another fuel crisis to drive a change that large. Hello early 70s, speaking of nostalgia. There is a very slow trend toward smaller, more efficient, etc. vehicles such as the Maverick, but there’s still going to be sticker shock working against the ID.Buzz.
OR, VW could cram a bigger battery in them to create an open road version for the US. That’s likelier to happen, but not necessarily likely. Lots of cars out there are never brought here and the ID.Buzz may revert to being one more example.
Very good assessment, VW these days is just a European manufacturer that happens to sell some of their cars in the US (and yeah has a big plant in TN but their US market specific vehicles are cheap and boring).
And I’m a very happy owner of one using it as a kid hauler. The actual product is great (provided you have some idea of what to expect) even for decently long road trips in regions with good charging coverage. And it was very reasonably priced after factoring in incentives. But they totally f’d up selling it in this market.
I know it’s still a fairly new vehicle, but I find it revealing that among folks such as yourself who purchased an ID.Buzz and have spent extended time with one, the reviews are almost universally positive. That tells me that perception bias lies at the heart of most detractor’s opinions. Kind of the way “real” pick up drivers denigrate the Santa Cruz and Maverick as not trucks because they can’t tow 8000 lbs or more. Bias isn’t necessarily wrong per se, but it is based upon subjective assessment that arises from meeting an individual’s needs, both physical and emotional. VW’s biggest mistake was trying to align the Buzz with the old Bus. Of course the Buzz would fail that test. If people did eventually slot the Buzz with the Bus, it needed to happen organically over time. I hope they can ultimately justify keeping it here. Thanks for your feedback; I hope you have many enjoyable years to come with your Buzz. B
Haha yes I’ve heard very largely positive feedback from owners. I think most owners are biased too though… anyone who makes a big purchase usually has to convince themselves it was the right call. It’s also very fun looking which makes it easy to forgive it when you try to roll both windows up and one starts going down for no reason (but VW is new at this whole car making thing so cut them some slack).
My wife and I joke that we could be driving a Ferrari and we’d get far less attention (though it’s absolutely not an exaggeration).
But I agree trying to market it as a halo car makes it an expensive nostalgia-mobile in the eyes of the public and largely only appealing to the boomers who like the old one, and they’re all online asking why VW didn’t bring the SWB 2-row version over.
I hope they find a way to bring it back and either beef up the range a bit or get the pricing more down to earth… even if that means they have to strip corner following LED headlamps and massaging seats out of the base trim level. I’m less in the “EREV ALL THE THINGS” camp than this website… it could work here, but I think the writers on this website underestimate how much these are going to cost… for vehicles smaller than full size pickups and 3 row SUVs I think they’re going to be quite a bit more expensive than a straight up BEV. It’ll be a great solution if you can afford it.
SCOUT Says, “Hold My Beer”
Because Scout is about to make the ID Buzz’d look like massive success.
I am cautiously optimistic with Scout. A full-size off-road pickup and SUV with a range-extender doesn’t exist in the market yet. GM had the Volt 15 years ago, but didn’t upscale it as an option on the Silverado/Tahoe/Suburban.
I do wonder how many BEV versions Scout will sell.
And if their marketing plan depends on folks who previously bought IH Scouts (akin to VW and the Microbus customers), then that will prove challenging.
The price is fine for the content you get. The range could be better, but I doubt it really matters.
The real problem is that the van is an overt nostalgia object for a certain generation, and that generation is now solidly geriatric. Not to yuck anyone’s yum, but I’m growing to believe the retro aesthetic is actually a negative for the majority of potential customers.
Imagine if Ford waited until now to introduce the 2002-2005 Thunderbird… Or if Chrysler waited 4 more rounds of corporate ownership before introducing the Plymouth Prowler? That’s what VW really fucked up here. They should have just produced their Microbus concept 20 years ago when people cared about that kind of thing, and the target demographic was in their peak.
80s retro-futurism is the current mainstream nostalgia, for better or worse. Volkswagen is just an unserious company with a horrible understanding of their market.
Dieselgate was a 1-2 punch for them, and they won’t recover for awhile. It forced the EV commitment, and somehow they still got nowhere near the other EV-focused companies, or even GM. They don’t seem like a particularly quick and efficient company, and so they’re also struggling to adapt to the EV demand drop and rise of hybrids.
They also are responsible for Electrify America, possibly the most hated charging network in the US due to (shocking) VW-level reliability.
Uh, the Consent Decree DEMANDED they invest in Electrify Murica.
Even the addled strategic wizards of Wolfsburg knew putting that kind of money in a Giant Blackhole of Losses Forever on the charging side was a terrible investment.
Tesla built a charging network that is loved and was profitable (might still be, not sure what happened after he fired the Supercharger team).
And at less than the size of most VW subsidiaries. VW put the bare minimum, if that, into EA and it shows, because like you said they were required to.
I wish they’d been forced to put the VW name on it. Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered, however as it stands they have no incentive to care how much the average person hates EA. That person is unlikely to know the two brands are related.
Nah, no business, with physical hardware, leases, maintenance and repairs can run on 3 points of margin.
The average gas station runs with HIGHER gross margins than “charging”, but would still lose money forever were it not for the high margin beer, Coke and jerky sales.
I think you make a good point here. The Ioniq5 is pretty well-received. But it also looks like everything the 80s got right in hatchback design.
It also has the same range as the ID.Buzz at half the price.
Not only that, if VW is going to go for retro, how about not naming it like it’s a phone. ID.Buzz? What about Microbus?
You won’t see GM come out with an electric Corvette and call it the HP.Whiz for a reason.
” Not only that, if VW is going to go for retro, how about not naming it like it’s a phone. ID.Buzz? What about Microbus?” EXACTLY . And give me round ass headlights and directionals.
It was only today I realized “buzz” was supposed to sound like “bus” but…electric-ish.
The ID part is supposed to mean “intelligent design”. To most people, it means what you need to have to buy a beer or what you have to show if you get pulled over.
ID Buzz sounds ridiculous in English. VW really messed up here. They could have just called it the Bus, or Kombi… anything but what they went with.
Right, the ID prefix is what they use for all their EVs.
Correct. They could have come up with something much better than that.
Wow. I had no idea either. Maybe it’s more obvious in German?
Are you sure?
I realized it about 10 minutes before posting that, and have searched the internet which appears to agree it was intentional.
I was born in 1993, my folks and most of my friends parents were Boomers. Also, everyone (but my mom) had a minivan, it seemed. Launching a Bus alongside the New Beetle in the late 90s/early 2000s would have been the time to do it. People with memories of the original Bus, and a need for a similar vehicle for their growing families. Now those Boomers are empty nesters and don’t need a van.
The parents of growing families now don’t have many, if any, nostalgic memories about the Bus, or even a Beetle. They’re my age. By the time I started driving, my air-cooled Beetle was nearly 40 years old, and the only old Beetle most of my classmates had ever seen up close. My friends and I are likely some of the only people our age whose high school memories include driving around in an old VW.
I was born 10 years before you and yet still never was in one or saw anyone in my high school driving one. That said you were/are clearly way cooler than me based on car choice alone.
This is a great take . I’m 63 years old and the Buzz is too late for this End of Boom Boomer. Look at what 1st Gen T Birds go for now and watch 60’s cars ( other than Muscle Cars ) follow those prices down the slippery slope. There’s no hook to car guys / gals born in the 90’s . Also , how hard would it have been to go with round headlights and turn signals ? Total design fail for me.
VW vans may have been common in California, but not in the rest of the country.
American vans were always cheaper and more common.
Shoud’ve been $10K cheaper with a reliable 330 miles of range on the AWD. Upcharge for 400 miles range.
If the Chevy Brightspace could get nearly 300 miles of range out of a much larger and heavier (and less aerodynamic) vehicle, then it’s clear that it’s not a physics problem.
How VW didn’t understand this is shocking, IMO.
That said, I’d love to get my hands on a used one when they get down below $35k, which may not take that long.
New ones are currently $10k off by me, so you may not have to buy used pretty soon.
it is clear to me that Product-Planning is THE MOST IMPORTANT function of any auto manufacturer, and yet here is another example of a product plan doomed from inception.
therefore…
bonuses for the executive team!
This. Product planning is tough, but the first round of EVs from many OEMs (and the gaps in the market) are perplexing.
And if you take the list of top 25 best-selling vehicles in the U.S., how many of them offer a BEV or PHEV option that is affordable (relative to its trim) and widely available?
I think you have to view it as a niche vehicle. The microbus concept is such a huge undertaking that it had to be this way.
It’s half as expensive as an Audi RS6 and has sold 3-4x better. Both are explicitly family vehicles. Does that make the RS6 a failure?
For $5-10k MSRP (if that) more than a mainstream minivan, it’s much more comfortable for a large family.
The range argument is wild to me. My wife and I drive 90-120 miles per day and we just level 2 charge our Buzz daily. With low utility costs / solar / free charging at work it’s so convenient.
Charging is pretty easy at Tesla chargers or even Electrify America chargers, but it’s certainly not a roadtrip vehicle. I don’t think that is a huge issue for many people, and it’s common to own more than one vehicle or just rent a van for a roadtrip.
For us it’s nice to not have to drive a Suburban for space or buy a luxury brand to get similar features. $65k for the size of a Buzz and the level of content seems pretty fair when you compare it to a Suburban or loaded Sienna. Compare it to a Rivian and the Rivian wins on prestige and range. With 3-4 kids a Rivian is a joke compared to a Buzz when it comes to comfort and convenience.
Nobody buys wagons. I don’t think it’s because they are any particular failure on execution. They just aren’t what people picture themselves in. Doesn’t mean that they aren’t great for wagon people. I think the Buzz is similar.
If you want to remake the microbus, I think you’re looking at competing with the F-150, not the Sienna.
The RS6 can afford to be a niche vehicle, being a variant of an already existing product priced high for juicy margins. This cannot afford to be that, VW is ultimately a mass market brand that needs to find a mass market hit to keep itself going, and this just doesn’t do it. It’s sad because honestly this is what I’d want as a family vehicle in a few years! It looks great, has personality, but it just wouldn’t do the job I’d need from it
Et tu (with the BEV bashing), Jason?
The new Microbus could never fill the same role as the original, because VW is not the same company that made the original. They’ve moved sharply upmarket, going from the “people’s car” to the “near premium” space. No matter the power train, the new bus was never going to be affordable, let alone cost competitive with other minivans.
In addition, the ID.Buzz failed not because it is a BEV, but because Volkswagen made a bad BEV. VW’s heart was never in it, they were dragged into EVs kicking and screaming in the wake of Dieselgate.
Volkswagen absolutely could have made the new bus better, cheaper, and with longer range. Instead, they delayed it for years (mostly for development issues that had nothing to do with the power train). When it hit the market with the thud of an oversized turd, nobody was surprised (least of all VW.)
It worth noting that the advertised range was a best case scenario. These things drop to 1st gen Nissan Leaf range in the frigid cold.
The original was cool bc it wasn’t trying to be. As Jason said, the design brief was basically “make a cheap box on wheels” whereas this one seems to have been “make something cool.” That seems a doomed premise. It still could have been popular (see: PT Cruiser).
All the cries of “it’s too expensive” are just that, crying.
This is what everything costs now because people are willing to take out the 94 month loans to buy it. All the junk they put in that costs money? People want that. Period. Look at the comments here over time. Gotta have cooled seats, stupid door handles that require an app to turn on a heater, 27″ rims, rear seat ‘reminders’, etc.
Things will never get cheap until the cheap stuff sells and the rest does not. Until then, enjoy your luxury and loan payments.
If people want to pay that, I can’t stop them.
But the gradual evolution/mutation of The People’s Car’s reputation (from bulletproof affordability to overpriced liability) has been devastating. That bus would be lucky to survive a 60 month loan, let alone 80.
Toyota may have gone price crazy but at least the Land Cruiser is good.
? I’ve yet to see someone on this site defend dumb door handles. To the contrary articles and comments often complain about the stuff you mention.
That said, I suspect you’re right when it comes to the typical car buyer. But, also, most of those things have a trivial cost to manufacture (there’s no way a rear seat reminder is costing any OEM more than a couple bucks). Sure all that crap adds up but, at least to produce, it doesn’t cost more than a couple hundred to a couple thousand bucks.
the ‘should use the EV battery to heat the door handles and control it via na app’ was on this site.
I bet the regulatory compliance and testing aspects of every stupid mandated feature costs more than the feature itself.
when lane departure, emergency braking and 360 cameras get mandated you can expect even the cheapest cars to hit that $45k price point. there will be no escaping the mandated bloat.
I missed that article, but point taken. There’s also a cost for the teams responsible for cooking up the dumb features a different team will convince us we want. Looking at you color changing LED accent lighting.
turns out my weekend car has that. took the wife for a ride in it for the first time and she asked “what’s this button do?” and I had no idea. push it and…. we’re suddenly in a fast and furious movie with LED floor lighting. you can pick your color even.
good thing ‘black’ is one of the choices. 🙂
Car manufacturers are in for a huge shock when people that can’t afford to buy new cars stop doing so.
Most people I know that can afford new cars will never buy another one, very deliberately.
I think many people can’t do math.
Even without delusional prices, being a new model is more a bad thing than an incentive now.
nope. when things go against the OEMs, the government steps in with the money printer. ‘cash for clunkers’, free loans, buying up parts of the company. we’ve seen it before, no reason to think we won’t see it again.
(except for that part about people not doing math, you’re spot on about that)
I’ve seen two of these since release, my second yesterday. Both had drivers over age 70. No one wants this but old hippies who have disposal cash. It’s a complete failure and it was clear it would be before they released it. If it doesn’t come back as an ICE vehicle, it will never sell. VW is such a joke these days its so sad.
I saw my first one on the road on Thursday. For such a noticeable vehicle I assume that means I’ve passed all of one. In contrast I’ve seen 5-10 Vinfasts driving around. And not all the same colour, so there are multiples in my area.
I’ve seen more Fisker Oceans than ID.Buzzes.
Wait you saw multiple vinfasts driving? Under their own power?
We actually have a couple of the Type IIs in town so I see more of those than I do of the new Buzz. It’s the opposite with the 2000s Beetles, see a ton of those around vs the originals.
My neighbor actually has one they daily drive. You look up used ones and decent ones are still going for like 15k around here and it blows my mind.
Too little range, too late, too expensive. RIP buzz box. You had so much potential.
The non-poverty spec Siennas are in the $50k+ range now. I have a platinum Sienna and it was $60k.
While current car prices are bananas, there is a huge difference between a van starting at 40k and top end being 60k (sienna) vs a van starting at 60k (buzz).
That’s like comparing a BMW 2 series (starts at 40) and a 5 series (starts at 60). Can you spec a 2 up to the base price of the 5? Sure. Are they competitors? Not really.
If it had been a hybrid or EREV, I might have considered it, but at that price and that range?
Absolutely not.
If it had been either of those and a bit cheaper, they would have been a huge hit. Toyota can’t make their hybrid Siennas fast enough and those are around $40k-$55k
Oh there’s a $40k one on paper but in the real world? You’re only finding the limiteds and you’ll be lucky if you can get one for 55
See Volkswagen!? This could have been you!!!!
I just got a Sienna a couple months ago. You can absolutely get a bare bones $40k trim, and get it’s for a couple hundred under MSRP without too much effort. The vast majority are going to be models on the high 40s. I had to wait on a Limited because my wife wanted a specific color and I wanted AWD and spare tire, but it still only meant a 6 week wait and getting it under the ~$55k sticker. Even Sienna availability is changing and has drastically improved since this summer.
Even if we keep it purely an EV, which I’d be fine with, it just simply isn’t competitive. Compared to an EV9 it gets drastically worse range, has less power, is heavier, and costs about 10% more.
It simply isn’t a good EV.