DETROIT MOTOR SHOW: Volkswagen ID. Buzz concept

Comeback kid Volkswagen is going backwards and forwards at the same time with its previously-teased all-electric ID. Buzz people-mover concept car.

It’s the latest in at least five attempts the brand has had to rekindle the Kombi spirit since the millennium, including the 2011 Bulli concept, but it’s never quite done it like this before.

While the outer skin clearly looks to the past, the internals of the ID. Buzz are just as clearly a peek into Volkswagen’s future.

The concept car is a precursor to a model tentatively slated to join the Volkswagen lineup in 2020, with two electric motors, a long-range lithium-ion battery and seating for eight adults.

The all-wheel drive MPV has 275kW of total system power, with 150kW coming from an electric motor on the snub-nosed front and the same from the one integrated into the rear axle structure. (And, before you ask, the nature of the power delivery means that, no, it doesn’t add up to 300kW.)

Volkswagen is also proposing a 200kW version of the ID. Buzz as a pure rear-wheel drive model, which will be philosophically true to the original Kombi, with its electric motor sitting in the rear.

Designed with versatility in mind, the ID. Buzz will be a key player in Volkswagen’s full-court press on fully-connected electric cars.

Desperate to distance itself from the Dieselgate emissions scandal and both its public image and financial penalty consequences, the ID. Buzz will be one of brand boss Herbert Diess’s key players.

It’s aiming to reposition itself as an environmentally responsible industry leader, with the I.D. Buzz following up the four-seat, rear-engined I.D. Hatch it showed at the 2016 Paris motor show.

With two fully-scalable battery-electric architectures at its disposal, Volkswagen is planning to launch even more electric concepts before 2019, including an SUV, a crossover SUV, a coupe and a convertible sports car.

“The Volkswagen brand’s big electric offensive begins in the year 2020 with a completely new vehicle architecture,” Diess insisted.

“That is when we will be launching a new generation of fully connected, all-electric vehicles on the market.

“By 2025 we want to be selling one million of these vehicles annually. We are making electric mobility the new trademark of Volkswagen,” says Diess.

The Detroit concept will theoretically get to 100km/h in five seconds (a far cry from Faraday’s 2.3-second concept MPV, but Volkswagen thinks that kind of acceleration isn’t necessary in this style of car).

The top speed is limited to 160km/h to protect both the battery range and the integrity of the battery chemistry.

There’s a long-range 111kWh lithium-ion battery as low as possible between the front and rear axles, with the upper part of its casing serving as the cabin’s floor.

Volkswagen claims a 600km range from the battery pack on the European cycle, which is about 70km more than the 95kWh Budd-e concept it launched during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January 2016.

It takes 30 minutes to give the I.D. Buzz’s battery an 80 per cent charge, which would be enough to eke out an extra 480km of range.

The ID. Buzz also delivers Volkswagen’s latest upgrades for self-driving technology, combining inputs and data from laser and lidar scanners, ultrasonic and radar sensors, a front camera and an area-view camera and processing it all through a central computer in real time.

It also combines the car’s own sensors with traffic data from a data cloud and the HERE digital mapping operation owned by Audi, Daimler, BMW and, from the end of March this year, computer-chip giant Intel.

The ID. Buzz has front seats that rotate 180 degrees and the combined touch pad and steering wheel retracts into the dashboard to maximise interior space when the car is in the I.D. Pilot mode that Volkswagen plans to introduce in 2025.

Volkswagen has developed an all-new, revolutionary steering system for the ID. Buzz that doesn’t just pull the steering wheel into the dash, but completely decouples the steering wheel from the steering gear.

The design of the body and cabin of the ID. Buzz take advantage of its reduction in space needed by the electric motors. There are two front-hinged doors for the front seats and two electrically driven sliding doors for the two rear rows of seating.

There is no conventional dashboard, instead moving to augmented reality technology and a head-up display to deliver any critical information. Less critical information, like the climate control or infotainment systems, can be seen on a portable tablet or on touchpad panels in the door trims or on the outer sides for the third row of seating.

The interior layout itself borrows from more conventional thinking, being flexible enough to carry more luggage than seems possible thanks to cargo areas at both ends.

At 4941mm long, 1976mm wide and 1963mm high, the I.D. Buzz ends up 344mm longer than the Budd-e concept, 128mm taller and 36mm wider.

It sits on the longest version of the Volkswagen Modularen Elekrisch Baukasten (MEB) scalable electric-car architecture, the XL-sized I.D. Buzz has an enormous 3300mm wheelbase that lets the engineers cram it with as much battery capacity as possible.

Its wheelbase is almost 15 centimetres longer than the Budd-e, and it has 829mm front and 812mm rear overhangs. It rides on 22-inch wheels and tyres, complete with 235/45 profile rubber and an air suspension.