I’ve been writing for Motor1 / WorldCarFans for 10 (ten!) years and I can assure you Volkswagen has never generated so much hype around a new product. The ID. Buzz will finally break cover in production form on March 9, but the Wolfsburg brand has decided to sneak in one more teaser. Thankfully, it's more substantial than other recent previews since it shows the cabin for the very first time.
With the risk of stating the obvious, we are looking at the passenger model with a five-seat arrangement. The ID. Buzz Cargo – which also debuts on Wednesday – is going to have three front seats and a divider behind them. The electric van's interior looks like a happy place to be in courtesy of a two-tone look matched with the exterior paint. VW says there will be seven single-color body finishes and four two-tone schemes.
Gallery: 2023 Volkswagen ID. Buzz interior teaser
As with just about every other VW model on sale today, the ID. Buzz will have LED ambient lighting to provide "atmospheric accents" courtesy of 30 selectable colors. There are also quite a few retro nods to the T1, and by extension, to the 2017 namesake concept. Yes, the showcar debuted five years ago at the Detroit Auto Show.
Being a van, it has to be hugely practical, and aside from having a spacious cabin, the VW ID. Buzz has a couple of neat features. We usually associate the bottle opener with Ford's trucks and the ice scraper with Skoda models, but the modern-day T1 has both. Interestingly, no real leather or other types of material of animal origin have been used inside where the zero-emission van exclusively uses sustainable materials.
For example, the steering wheel is manufactured from polyurethane, but VW says it feels just like genuine leather. In addition, materials from various recycled products have been used for the floor coverings, seat covers, and the headliner. One of the eco-friendly materials is called Seaqual yarn and consists of 90 percent recycled PET bottles and 10 percent marine plastic. As for the upholstery, it uses 71 percent recyclates.
We'll remind you only the passenger model will be sold in the United States, but not until 2023. Meanwhile, both flavors of the ID. Buzz will hit Europe this fall once production will get going in Hannover, Germany.
