Green Car announces the finalist for the best car to buy in 2025

• In the US version, ID.Buzz is larger, more powerful and costs over $60,000
• Up to 234 miles EPA range, from 10 to 80% in just 26 minutes.
• No bi-directional charging or RV yet

The Volkswagen ID.Buzz is one of the most eye-catching and eye-catching new vehicles available at any price. And that's even before some people know or care that it's electric. That alone is one of several reasons it's a finalist on Green Car Reports' Best Car To Buy 2025 list – but its appeal and importance to the market go much further.

VW has found a clever balance between retro and modern with the ID.Buzz. It's a smile and nostalgic device at first glance, but as you spend more time indoors and around it, you'll feel a deeper appreciation for it. Not only is it quiet, pleasant to drive and reasonably maneuverable for a van; It also won't drive you crazy with compromises for the sake of cuteness, like VW did with its New Beetle. The Buzz, on the other hand, offers just the right amount of retro fun from the outside – particularly by adopting the look of the original air-cooled vans from the '50s and '60s and their two-tone appearance – while its side profile and packaging are convincing even according to pragmatic Eurovan- Evolution and inside it is thoroughly modern.

But what a long, strange journey it was. VW officially announced it would be putting the ID Buzz into production in 2017 at that year's Monterey Car Week in California, and at the time we assumed this would be a model that would ride the waves of California's VW bus nostalgia . Seven years later, it's just reaching this market after being available in Europe for almost two and a half years, and three and a half years after the closely related ID.4 crossover was introduced in the US. Why wasn't it a priority?

The 2025 Volkswagen ID.Buzz has been further developed for the USA and is now only available in a three-row version, with an overall length of 195.4 inches and a remarkably long wheelbase of 127.5 inches – about 127.5 inches a 10-inch stretch compared to the two-row version that Europe began more than two years ago. A total height of 76.2 inches is enough for most garages, and its 6.1 inches of ground clearance should be just enough for unpaved trails on the way to hiking or camping, but there's no air suspension adjustability or serious off-road use here.

This means that the ID.Buzz in the form that arrives in the USA has more power –282 hp as single-motor rear-wheel drive or 335 hp combined as all-wheel drive with two motors– and it gets bigger 91 kWh battery (86 kWh usable), lasts up to 234 miles of the EPA area. Charging stops on the road shouldn't make you wait long 10-80% charge in just 26 minutes (although there is no bi-directional charging yet). The infotainment system has been greatly improved and has a fairly well-integrated trip planner that can handle plan changes or new waypoints and intelligently prepare the battery for the fastest charge when needed.

Our first real driving results suggest that ID.Buzz can exceed these EPA ratings under light loads and mild weather. Don't expect it to keep up with all of today's sporty electric crossovers; it rides heavy (AWD versions weigh nearly 6,200 pounds). But with a quiet, well-damped weight and in dual-motor guise, its 0-60 mph acceleration of 6.0 seconds is by no means slow.

There's a lot of flexibility inside and some great adult sized and contoured seats. But upon closer inspection, you notice some cracks in the packaging. Its high console between the front seats lifts completely out of the vehicle, and just the right seat height, plenty of shelf space and a premium electrochromic glass roof in the top versions ensure the ID.Buzz hits all the right notes to be a its great alternative to SUVs. But there's a lack of storage space for small items in the back seats, and the ID.Buzz could fail at Americans' Cupholder 101. Since the floor is uneven and there are no truly folding third-row seats like those found in gasoline minivans — or the Lucid Gravity, to show that it's possible in a three-row electric vehicle — it's a mixed bag Picture.

The other question we care about is this: Why is it so expensive and why did it have to be that way? The ID.Buzz starts at $61,545including the $1,550 destination charge, and in AWD form it goes up to $71,545 for the top First Edition.

The buzz is based on that same Modular Electric Toolkit (MEB) architecture as the ID.4 originally planned for one million electric vehicles per year by 2025. Given that VW has compared the transition to electric vehicles to switching from air-cooled to water-cooled vehicles, it feels like a missed opportunity of the greatest magnitude. Here it is, one of the most iconic frame-and-cover, mass-market small cars in automotive history, and VW is marketing the modern version as a luxury niche vehicle, unlike models like the Rivian R1S or the fully loaded Kia EV9 – when it could well have had a 45,000 -dollar model that was powered by a huge amount of VW accessories and conversions for dealers to enjoy.

Additionally, there may be many more electric vans on the road that enable such flexibility. The more we think about the ID.Buzz's place in the electric vehicle market, the more it feels like a tipping point – one where, much like the counterculture that the original bus symbolized, it questions the shape of the future provides.

Does the VW ID.Buzz outshine the other four finalists in the “Best Car To Buy 2025” category? Check back on January 6th.