The Volkswagen ID.Buzz has been a breath of fresh air in what has long seemed to be a stale VW lineup. The ID.Buzz is colorful, practical, and is a glorious nod to the past, even if its range or pricing could be much better. A recent report suggests that Volkswagen’s coolest electric car is now the latest victim of tariffs imposed by the United States — that Volkswagen may have stopped importing the vans. But then Volkswagen of America told us that hundreds of them are on a boat right now. What in the world is going on with the Volkswagen ID.Buzz?
America’s complex and often sweeping tariffs this year have been causing havoc in global trade. I’ve written about how the reciprocal tariffs launched earlier this year have made imports of over 25-year-old cars 10 percent more expensive and how imports of these classic cars from Japan may become 25 percent more expensive on August 1. These tariffs are separate from Trump’s tariffs targeted at the auto industry, and as you’re about to read, continue to be a source of confusion.
President Trump’s list of tariffs includes a 25 percent duty on vehicles and auto parts assembled outside of the United States. These tariffs have hammered South Korea, Europe, and Japan; regions with car manufacturers that export some of their most popular models to the United States. Yesterday, Bloomberg published a report detailing the hit Volkswagen Group has taken thus far, from Bloomberg:
Sales of Porsche, Audi, Lamborghini and Bentley vehicles declined 7.7% to 480,200 units in the three months through June, highlighting the strain President Donald Trump’s duties are putting on VW’s high-margin marques.
The tariff pain is being felt beyond the premium brands. VW’s group sales dropped 16% in the US during the second quarter, a sharp reversal from the 4.4% growth in the first three months of the year, before the new levies came into effect.
The good news is that despite the trouble in America, VW Group has reportedly managed to increase global shipments 1.2 percent year-on-year to 2.27 million vehicles, with European deliveries delivering a stronger performance. Bloomberg notes that VW has even made 2.8 percent gains in China. VW also performed relatively well in the global EV space in the second quarter, showing a 73 percent jump in EV sales in Europe. However, VW EV sales fell 33 percent in China and 5.2 percent in America. This equates to VW EV sales being up 38 percent overall for the second quarter.
Schrödinger’s ID.Buzz
Now this news is going to get a whole lot weirder. If you believe one new report, America’s tariffs keep biting back. On July 10, German business journal Handelsblatt published a piece titled (roughly translated into English):
E-Bulli stopped – VW no longer delivers ID.Buzz to the USA
The subheadline then says:
The ID.Buzz was supposed to conquer America’s streets. Now VW is halting exports – likely primarily due to US President Donald Trump’s rigid tariff policy. The company is now hoping for that.
Handelsblatt then continues, with what sounds like a pretty definitive report, emphasis mine:
Düsseldorf, Vienna, New York. The car manufacturer Volkswagen has temporarily halted deliveries of its ID.Buzz electric minibus to the United States. Handelsblatt learned this from company sources. The reason for this is, in addition to a technical recall, primarily the punitive tariffs imposed by the administration of US President Donald Trump.
[…]
A spokesperson for the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand confirmed that the ID.Buzz is not currently being exported to the US and explained that deliveries of the model in the rest of the world increased by almost 70 percent. However, “challenging conditions in some markets – including North America” had a negative impact on this development.
He cited a recall as the reason for the current delivery stop to North America because the authorities considered the rear seat of the US model to be too wide. “It’s not the recalls, it’s the tariff issue,” countered an insider. Another person familiar with the matter also pointed to the recent significant increase in US tariffs.
According to Volkswagen of America, it sold 564 ID.Buzz vans in the second quarter of 2025. This is down from the 1,901 vans it sold in the first quarter.
Tariffs and a recalls haven’t been Volkswagen’s only struggles in moving ID.Buzz units. Back in April, Automotive News reported that Volkswagen figured out that ID.Buzz buyers don’t really care about the vans that have been shipped to America in single-color paint schemes, and would rather buy two-tone vans. Reportedly, Volkswagen has offered dealers an incentive to wrap single-color ID.Buzz vans to make two-tone color schemes.
It would be easy to just conclude that recalls and tariffs are stopping the ID.Buzz, but here comes a curveball.
There is a competing July 10 report out there that doesn’t even mention tariffs. Agence France-Presse has reported that ID.Buzz exports have been halted due to the recent recall involving the van’s third-row seats being a bit too large for just two occupants. From AFP:
“No electric ID. Buzz models made in Hanover are currently being delivered to North America due to a technical recall mandated by US authorities,” Tobias Riepe, a spokesman for Volkswagen’s commercial vehicles division, told AFP.
I reached out to Volkswagen of America for clarification on what is exactly happening here and, if imports have stopped, and when America will begin seeing the vans again. The answer I got was:
Not true – Volkswagen of America temporarily held ID. Buzz vehicles at the port of Emden while resolving the issues related to the stop sale. These vehicles are moving again, with several hundred on a boat currently.
To clarify, the pause at Emden was only for East Coast-bound vehicles – we continuously shipped ID. Buzzes to the West Coast.
So, Volkswagen’s response is that importation was previously only delayed while the automaker handled the recall issues. The response, as you read with your own eyes, denies that shipments are currently stopped and doesn’t mention tariffs at all.
This means we have two different answers as to what’s going on with the ID.Buzz right now. Handelsblatt claims to have gotten its information from Volkswagen. But we have a statement from Volkswagen, too.
All of this is to say that the great automotive industry whirlwind continues. It’s sad, too, because even with its imperfections, the Volkswagen ID.Buzz isn’t just the coolest Volkswagen EV on the market, but one of its most awesome products on sale in America, period. So, we’re sort of left scratching our heads here. Either the ID.Buzz is stopped, or it isn’t. We’re hoping for the latter so more people can enjoy this colorful people hauler.
I gotta say, everyone I talk to love the styling of these, but the cost is just outrageous for anyone in my circle.
Nobody’s paying $60k for a VW Bus!
Finally got our Buzz last month after the seat recall fix. Replaces a Pacifica Pinnacle Hybrid w/ $62k MSRP. Got our first edition RWD 7-seat buzz $65k OTD. Obviously a Pacifica comes with generous discounts but still in line
Price – for a car this size with these features (adaptive cruise, self-parking, massaging cooled seats, overhead camera etc.) it’s not much of a premium over a similar vehicle with similar features.
Range – don’t understand this one, but that’s the point as it’s not for everyone. A vehicle this size either needs more pack or more aero to get range up. Price goes up with pack size, aero goes down with frontal area. For what they were going for, it’s not a home run but it’s fine. We use it for 90/120mi round trip commutes after dropping kids at preschool and with free charging at work or level 2 at home, range is not an issue. Public fast charging inconvenience is that it charges so fast that we can’t finish lunch before we have to move it. We are seasoned Michigan to PA road trippers and it’s fine for a family with kids. I think it’s not a road trip machine due to poor charging location availability in some areas but otherwise it’s just different and sort of fun to plan a route based on charging
Fun factor. After driving a Pacifica for two years this is a lot better. It gets more comments than my Maserati, MK1 GTI, Alfa Romeo, you name it. The attention is probably a downside, but it’s cool to see how much people enjoy just seeing it on the road.
So much of this is dead-on correct with my 1 week of ownership (also coming from a Pacifica PHEV). The fast charging is definitely faster than my kids too. Also I didn’t realize the 1st editions were available as 7 seaters.
I also crack up every time I see that 3rd row recall fix… how does that make the seat narrower?!?
Have to get RWD to get 7 seats. I think the RWD 1st edition is less common?
We never got the seat fix! After waiting on that recall, received ours after brake recall repair due to purchase agreement and paperwork happening before seat recall. The seat recall is really odd.
Yeah, on fast charging I think that the kids taking more time than the charge is a huge point. 3 kids ages 1-5 isn’t a recipe for speed on stops
I was 100% committed to this thing, but range was just a bit too short, price while high I was able to stomach it, but I think discounts quickly followed after it was released.
I ended up buying something that costed a bit more, but also had more range, then I bought something substantially less with the same range. This was a bit in no man’s land, unless you really need to carry 6 people on a regular basis or really liked the way it looked. I love the way it looks but not enough to buy it compared to other options.
The old VW bus proved that people are willing to forgive a lot if there is a lot of glass and the front is cute. The Buzz has neither of those things going for it.
I have no dog in this fight, but I like your username.
It took VofA 20 plus years to bring it here. Its electric. Its expensive. Volkswagen, you are Volkswagen…
You lost your way.
You are too expensive.
Oh, and its electric,
And your range is shit considering the point of the bus. Travel. When it sells for 25k used… nope the range is still merde for its intended purpose. Increase the range and get the price point to a livable amount then maybe VW will have a product. Or here is a thought: hybrid
“The ID.Buzz was supposed to conquer America’s streets.” I think I see the problem here. A company suckered itself in by its own marketing hype. Yeah, this was never going to happen. And thinking it would happen is probably why they went cheap on the finished product = Profit!
id buzz is a weird car. its not as roomy as a regular mini van. its expensive and the electric performance is so so. its like a mini van for people who don’t need a mini van. but 3 row Evs are still not common enough so if you really need the third row and it HAS to be an ev well theres only 5 choices that i know of and this is one of them.
I just bought one last week (or leased it to be exact but plan to buy out the lease asap)! I’ve been looking for a 3 row EV and was so sure I’d be buying an Ioniq 9, but then saw it and drove it and it was… fine. It felt like a major compromise from our Pacifica in space though. Then I saw the buzz and opened the (sliding!) door, saw the cavernous interior, and remembered car buying is an emotional thing too.
Two days later we road-tripped it 650 miles with our 3 kiddos and dog. It was great! I stopped twice to charge (40 mins each), easily going well above 200 miles per stint (first was 260), and while it probably would have been more time efficient to do 3 shorter stops, the kids and dog were the limiting factor (those ankle biters have to pee, poop, eat, and bicker, and they’re not quick about it). Fast charging rate never went above 190kw or so, but the charging curve is a good one, so you truly only need ~25 mins to go 10-80%. I essentially reproduced that on my first stop (~42 mins got me from 7%-96%… things slow down after 80%).
Anyway, we have a solid black one I managed to get from the dealer for what will end up about $51k after taxes and fees after I buy out the lease (I did use a vw partner deal too which helped a little). It’s the “base” RWD model but still gets you nifty lane-following LED headlights, massaging heated and cooled seats, heated 2nd row seats, decent level 2 cruise control, and a bunch of free fast charging at EA stations. Incentives are pretty significant, for now at least, so if you really want one stop thinking of it as a $70k+ vehicle and start calling around to different dealers for quotes. The dealers seem to be more motivated to move their older solid color models too.
ETA: the infotainment is nice and snappy, the factory nav did a better job avoiding traffic and finding chargers than the ABRP app (even if it shows restaurants in my town that closed 15 years ago), the capacitive controls everywhere are kinda annoying but are still functional and not terrible to use, the rear window button selector is super-dumb but also we don’t usually roll those down so it hasn’t been that annoying. And I wish they’d just rely on the push button for turning it on and off rather than using your butt in the seat, but it hasn’t been too terrible in practice. So overall, UI choices are not ideal, but also have all been much better than I feared based on all the negative press.
I appreciate you sharing your personal experience.
Extremely interested to see where this lands over the next few years as I’d like a non-SUV 3 row EV.
4 row would be better but … baby steps.
If they don’t move production to the US it seems like they’ll get more expensive (depends on if EU can negotiate auto import tariffs down to 10%… at 25% I think this thing will have to be pricier). Also have no clue how used values will hold up (as an owner I hope pretty well, but if they’re like most EVs there could be some very solid deals once leases end in ~3 years).
The interior passenger space is crazy, they probably could have fit 4 rows in there if they made the seats a little more compact. Trunk space behind the 3rd row is mediocre unless you slide the 3rd row all the way forward or take out a 3rd row seat (very easy to do). Even with 2nd and 3rd rows moved all the way forward, there’s plenty of legroom for adults in all the seats. Don’t think there’s a 4 row EV option available yet, though I’m sure with enough money you can make an eSprinter or electric transit into whatever you want. How many kids do you have?!
It varies
Worst condition we’ve had is 5 in car seats at the same time. We could have up to 8 total depending on the circumstances.
The MegaVan (Nissan NVP) exists to cover all travel and out of state needs for any situation.
It would be NICE to have a more efficient around town option, but right now only the Sienna has any appreciable improvement in fuel consumption for around town use.
When we have 3 kids my wife can use our Prologue, but my hope was by the time that lease is up we would have some additional options for fitting additional kids if necessary.
Oof that’s a tricky requirement. The Sienna does seem like a reliable and (in the case of the newer models) very efficient kid hauler, but for the 4-row config I think you’re going to be out of luck until someone offers a passenger version of their electric full size vans. The eTransit and BrightDrop cargo vans are both listed at about $45k which doesn’t sound too crazy (by modern vehicle standards at least) but I’d think you’d spend at least $10k to get an upfitter to put 3 additional rows of seats in there.
I’m in no real rush. I’m expecting at least another 5 years of steady use out of the NV. Eventually I’d like to relegate it to long trip use, but that’s a long term wish.
The real market for these was as a replacement for the Eurovan Camper version. Just look at the resale of all those 1990’s, up to about 2003, Eurovans. Prices are high but no one wants the non-camper version. If you’re hauling kids, who basically destroy the interiors of cars, get a Chrysler Pacifica. VW always adds too many bells and whistles to over complicate the designs. Just make it basic and make it cheap. Not sure VW has the capability to do that anymore??
It has nothing to do with that stupid recall. It has everything to do with a $70,000 price tag and an unbelievably short battery range. The fact that you have to order cupholders as an accessory is an insult to injury. Now, here come the tariffs, and there’s the nail in the coffin.
I drive by a VW dealer every day. A few months ago they apparently decided to invest in used Rivian inventory, and have a giant sign out front talking about the Rivians they have. The Rivians are all featured along the frontage to the main road.
I just looked at their inventory. ID Buzz: 3. Rivians: 36
So I guess they feel more confident selling Rivians than their own VW product? They only have 23 ID4s as well. So less VW EVs in total than Rivians. Not a good look.
That’s shockingly low. Even the Sportwagen, plain Golf, and e-Golf combined sold more than that in Q12019, and all 3 of those got the ax.
This should increase sales. Tell people they can’t have an ID.Buzz, and they’ll want an ID.Buzz. Marketing!
I can tell you want happened. It’s a $65k EV with shit range, VWs awful infotainment, and cup holders only in the front. The 900 boomers that were eying this thing have already bought them. Even without the tariffs this had a very limited shelf life.
Sorry this is why I don’t respect the Autopian when it comes to economics. You can’t bathe tariffs on the the sales and cost of the I’D BUZZ. There were more idbuzz imported and available for sale at the beginning of the tariffs that they were not affected by the tariffs. The vehicles currently for sale are last year models and not suspectable to the tariffs. I bet the days of inventory of the idbuzz is over a year. I also believe the failure of the idbuzz is the original VW bus was a cheap poor performance barely acceptable vehicle and poor people bought it because they could afford it. Now marketing boneheads think you can name a new model that is no way comparison and charge a fortune. Sorry cheap success can only be reciprocate if it is cheap. Marketing people know this but they lie because it is the only way to make money
Exactly. Everyone wants to blame the tariffs. Nope. Car companies need to understand that after a few months of “cool, awesome looking, niche vehicles” that reality sets in and people realize that its not practical, too expensive and oh yeah, electric.
I keep hoping that the tariffs will result in Porsche diverting some sweet 911Ts (with manual, of course) to Canada. No luck so far….
Did you guys know the new Mazda CX-5 was revealed today??
The Mitsubishi Outlander is the cool, well-built not talked about SUV out there. The Outlander was already ahead of the class-leader the RAV4 and now after the CX-5 and RAV4 reveal, the 25 Outlander embarrasses them both.
But if seen driving one people will think your credit is terrible.