Volkswagen ID.Buzz GTX (2024 – ) Electric review

Electric vehicles can deliver genuine savings in running costs, especially if you’re able to charge at home or run it as a company car. But there’s no escaping the ID.Buzz is a very expensive purchase, the fancier and more powerful GTX trim only making it more so, while the temptations of the options list add to the bill. OK, bottom line price doesn’t really reflect the way most people buy their cars these days and monthly finance and lease costs will be the real comparison. But, for context, the GTX adds at least 10 per cent to the cost of the most basic ID.Buzz in the range, and that’s only the start, the price rising the more seats you go for and if you opt for the long-wheelbase with the bigger battery.

The shared foundations underpinning the ID.Buzz feature in electric cars across the VW, Cupra, Skoda and Audi ranges. There were some early wobbles with infotainment systems and other glitches but the GTX gets the new and improved system so will hopefully prove to be more reliable on this score.

As per the standard ID.Buzz here, with lots of safety tech to reassure the family buyers likely attracted by its practical nature. New features include an exit warning system to avoid you opening your door into a passing cyclist or car, and the systems controlling the lane keeping and other assistance tech have been upgraded. Good news? The Assistance Package Plus is now standard, and includes radar-monitored cruise control, Travel Assist branded lane-keeping, 360-degree parking cameras, towing control (useful, given the GTX’s extra haulage capacity) and blind spot alerts. Those with young families will meanwhile be disappointed the ID.Buzz only has two Isofix mounts on the outer rear seats – if you need three across the rear bench you need to stick with a more conventional MPV like the Touran.

With standard- or long-wheelbase options and the choice of five-, six- or seven-seater configurations you can choose a Buzz GTX to fit your needs, whether they be focused on carrying people, kit or any combination of the two. The five-seat set-up leaves a huge boot space, or an even bigger one with the long-wheelbase and the middle row slides back and forth to balance legroom against luggage capacity. This side of an actual van nothing comes close in terms of practicality, and the Buzz works equally well as a family bus as it does a lifestyle vehicle for hauling bikes, surfboards or whatever. Also, depending on seat layout, GTX models can be equipped with a long or short Multiflex board (including two folding boxes). This creates a second loading level and – when the rear seats are folded down – a flat load area that you could definitely stick a rock and roll mattress on, which we're told is an incredibly popular thing to do in the ID. Buzz.

It would be easy to dismiss the external details and design upgrades as skin-deep, but the bespoke exterior design package for the new GTX flagship model of the ID. Buzz includes front and rear bumpers, colours and wheel designs. These give it a more aggressive look, 21-inch wheels adding to the effect while on the inside you get quilted fleece upholstery with red piping and stitched GTX logos. The new ‘Cherry Red’ paint style is offered exclusively on the GTX and can be configured in two-tone with Mono Silver. And, just like the new ID. Buzz Long Wheelbase version, you can have the high-tech panoramic sunroof – the largest ever fitted to a Volkswagen – as an option. A very appealing one at that! The GTX, like the other models in the updated ID. Buzz range features what Volkswagen is calling “a major hardware and software update” including a new head-up display and the improved infotainment system with a bigger screen and now (thankfully) illuminated volume slider beneath.

This is where the GTX really shines and offers a major difference from the ID. Buzz you’ll already be familiar with. As mentioned, there are two wheel base options with the longer one getting a bigger 86kWh battery over the 79kWh of the standard one. This means a maximum of 283 miles of range over the 255 miles of the regular battery, neither especially impressive and down on that of the standard single-motor versions of the Buzz. The pay-off is, of course, considerably improved performance given the 340 horsepower now on offer and the reassurance of it going through all four wheels thanks to the additional motor up front. To put a number on that the GTX gets from 0-62mph around a second and a half quicker than the regular version (depending on the model) and feels way quicker than a vehicle of this size and weight has any right to!