Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles has unveiled its electric ID Buzz Cargo van and the ID Buzz passenger carrier.

The new vehicles are expected to go on sale in May, with the first examples arriving in October.

The retro-styled newcomer is expected to cost from around £40,000 in Cargo form and from £50,000 as an MPV.

Initially, a single-motor rear-wheel-drive powertrain will be offered, using an 82kWh battery. The motor is shared with other VW ID vehicles and produces 204PS and 309Nm. A more powerful dual-motor version will join the range next year.

There’s no official range figure yet, but VW says the ID Buzz should be capable of around 250 miles per charge. The vehicle is also equipped for 170kW DC fast charging, allowing the battery level to rise from 5% to 80% in about 30 minutes.

At 4,712mm long, the Buzz is around 200mm longer than a VW Caddy Cargo and 200mm shorter than a Transporter. It has a wheelbase of 2,988 mm.

The van offers a load space of 3.9 cubic metres, which is less than the 5.8 cubic metres in the back of the smallest T6.1 Transporter.

There’s no official payload information, yet, but the Buzz Cargo has a projected figure of 585Kg.

The new model line’s assistance systems include a Car2X local warning system, which utilises signals from other vehicles and the transport infrastructure to spot hazards in real time. Also included as standard is the Front Assist emergency braking function and, in the MPV, the Lane Assist lane-keeping assistant.

A new system: Travel Assist with swarm data, which facilitates partially automated driving across the entire speed range and, for the first time, assisted lane-changing on the motorway, will be available as an option.

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