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Buzz feed to be carefully controlled
Richard Bosselman
June 24, 2025
VW explains why supply of the electric retro-hit is in buyers’ hands.
HARD lessons from having to fire sale a landmark electric Volkswagen passenger car when the sector dissolved last year has influenced how its iconic sister model will be sold.
Without making direct reference to ID.4, Volkswagen NZ Commercial made clear that the passenger division’s awful time having to divest that bulk-ordered car over the past year for almost half its recommended retail is one impetus why it is being far more cautious about how it will offer the ID.Buzz.
Though the same platform and sharing mechanicals with the ID.4, the electric all-rounder taking the Kombi vibe into the future nonetheless plays to a notably higher price band, as a premium-themed product.
Landing three years late, the schedule being beset by delays, hasn’t dissipated market desire, VW believes, but the still parlous state of the EV scene now requires a cautious approach in which supply will be carefully controlled, VW Commercials national sales manager Scott Duggan (below) indicated at today’s media introduction.
VW NZ believes it cannot risk shipping in Buzz in bulk, in distributor-selected fit-outs it hopes are attractive to customers, as occurred with ID.4.
Accordingly it has decided on aping a sales strategy used by Porsche for the type, which spans from a $114,900 single motor commercial called that seats three and tops out with the $149,990 GTX dual motor that lends hot hatch zip to a family-minded seven seat configuration.
In between are two ‘Pro’ - brand-speak for ‘people mover’ - passenger types, in $129,990 five seat short wheelbase and $139,990 seven seater long wheelbase.
“We’ve obviously had a lot of time to look at the market, look at what's happened to electric vehicles,” says Duggan.
“We have also had a look at the car in general and we think that personalisation is key for the Buzz. (So) we are not going to have hundreds in stock.”
There are just 35 examples of the highly-styled model here already, and just another 25 are en route.
After that, the flow will reflect customer demand. Buyers will be encouraged to have their choices built to order by the Wolfsburg factory in Germany.
While that likely means a five month wait, the upside according to the brand is potential for improvement in the Buzz’s residual value.
Electric cars have proven notoriously poor resale performers; most are hit by 40 percent loss in the first year, and another 40 percent in the second.
But VW believes by carefully corralling volume, the model won’t depreciate as markedly as many electrics have.
His team has taken heed of the lessons learned “when you have hundreds and hundreds in stock and then there's distress selling. So what we're looking at is to look forward for resale and for customer satisfaction.”
An indent rather than a consignment strategy will help owners get the exact car they want, if not instantly.
“We can make it easier for customers. What they can do is uniquely tailor their vehicle to suit their personalities. It's more of a Porsche business model. No Porsche is ordered as a standard car.”
Buzz is considered to be a model with exuberant personality and is also expected to be the most personalised of VW’s models here.
With several thousand accessory and trim options for NZ market cars - everything from special lights to ordering the long wheelbase editions with six luxury seats rather than the seven that come in standard factory provision - there’s little likelihood two NZ market Buzz will be exactly the same, not least in the passenger versions.
“Personalisation is key for the Buzz,” says Duggan.
“So right now for New Zealand there are over 2000 variations you can build a Buzz. We've encouraged our dealer network to really spend time with customers.
“With that Porsche method, they don't have a standard car waiting sale out in the yards. We don’t want to have fields full …”
The policy might require customers to wait up to five months between their orders being resolved and the actual vehicles arriving. But not always.
“We do have vehicles in the system already, generic cars we can change,” Duggan says.
“… when we get a customer order, we can modify the generic one to then meet the customer's build specification.”
That’s preferable to the risk of having a big count of cars shipped in with hope all with find a willing buyer. That would have worked for ID.4 had the climate for electrics not gone completely cold last year.
The recovery from that has begun but the industry is now dubious about when, or if, EV support will ever come back to the health it enjoyed between 2020 and 2023, when all battery cars were hot hits.
What kiboshed ID.4 hatch was a change of government. The range was settled with Wolfsburg in 2022, at time when a Labour’s administration was supporting electrics with the Clean Car policy. VW here fought hard to get the car at a rebate-achieving price, a massive concession from Germany.
The factory in turn demanded VW NZ to order 1200 cars and aim to sell them all in 2024. The Auckland operation was confident it could, going by the rebate-driven fervour for electric.
But then … a change of Government. And with that, the end of the Clean Car incentive. The massive shipment had barely settled when National made good on a vow to end all that. EV sales simply died and VW had to massively discount its cars; a painful no-profit process that has just ended.
VW has not given any sales forecast for Buzz, but it believes the model has a good chance of resonating with customers who want a funky point of difference vehicle.
One benefit of it not arriving until now is that NZ has picked up a raft of fresh amendments plus the GTX, which only came into being last year wasn’t even on the radar in 2022.
The original car was on a standard wheelbase only and in single motor; the MY2025 line adds the longer wheelbase and also dual motor..
The latest cars have electric-driven, opening rear windows (the first had fixed, bonded glass) and the infotainment has improved software.
The Cargo and Pro editions have a 210kW/560Nm single motor, rear drive configuration with WLTP test assessed ranges of between 382 and 403 kilometres.
The GTX offers a 250kW/679Nm all-paw performance vibe well beyond anything after market tuners, let alone the factory, provided with the original Type 2 vans from the ‘50s and ‘60s.
The GTX has a 91kWh (86kWh usable) battery, a range of 396km and will nail 0-100kmh in 6.4 seconds is a 1.5s advantage over the other variants and brisk for a van, let alone any vehicle weighing north of 3000kg.
Top speed of 160kmh is far from being a performance car match, but it’s still a 15kmh lift over where the other types peg out.
Buzz batteries can be charged at a maximum DC charging speed of 200kW (pre-facelift was 170kW), with an 11kW AC charging rate that can theoretically fully charge the battery in seven hours and 30 minutes.
Buzz gets a powered sliding door on each side, folding mirrors, a powered tailgate and Pro models have tinted windows, keyless entry and start, stainless-steel pedal trims, alloy wheels, height adjustable front seats, heated and massage function front seats, three-zone climate-control, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, a digital radio, dynamic LED matrix headlights, rain-sensing wipers, parking sensors and voice-control. Also, there’s the ID. Buzz Box, a removable storage compartment between the front seats.
The major specification difference between the standard and long wheelbase is a move to larger brakes in the latter to reflect its higher kerb mass.
Buzz’s reliance on a healthy dollop of nostalgia about what once ran by various names - Bus, Bulli, Transporter and Microbus most common - is why it fronts with an over-sized VW logo on the front.
But in a modern world, even the two tone paint schemes that are just as de rigour are cost-extra, at $5200.
Other options are an assortment of 20 and 21 inches alloys as a better look to the 19s that are standard on everything but the 21-inch-wed GTX, for between $1800 and $2500.
There’s a $2500 stereo and head up display upgrade for the lowest and mid-sited passenger types, a panoramic glass roof that’s $4000 for all grades, a $900 luggage cover for all Pro models and servicing packages; $1395 for three years, $2695 for five.