Volkswagen ID. Buzz Wins Global Award as Best Car of the Year
On Tuesday, April 5 at the New York Auto Show, a special ceremony will crown the 2023 World Car of the Year winners as voted by the World Car Awards jury.
Yesterday, though, another international panel—consisting of world-renowned car designers, engineers, auto industry titans, motorsport legends, specialist journalists, broadcasters, media professionals and members of the public—announced their own awards for 2023-2024.
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The Volkswagen ID. Buzz won the top prize as Best Car of the Year, beating the Toyota GR 86 (second place) and the Nissan Ariya (third place).
“We are delighted with the recognition and the win for the pure electric ID. Buzz. And we’re grateful to the uniquely diverse and highly knowledgeable Best Cars of the Year judging panel for voting for it as their overall winner,” Volkswagen said in a statement.
The German automaker’s electric minivan has racked up multiple awards and accolades since debuting and going on sale in Europe last year in two-row configuration. This new vehicle is arriving at the right time while capturing the imagination of many Type 2/Bus fans in the process.
On the other side of the Atlantic, patience is still in order as the North American-bound three-row variant will be introduced in June, as it turns out. Volkswagen will start taking orders this year, but the first units in Canada won’t be ready until June 2024 as 2025 models. These informations were confirmed to Car and Driver in early March.
The seven-passenger ID. Buzz will obviously be longer than the five-passenger variant, and the sliding rear doors will be longer, as well. We expect most of the interior to be identical, including the many unique touches and cool Easter eggs designers came up with.
As is the case with the ID.4 crossover, look for single-motor RWD models delivering 201 horsepower and dual-motor AWD models rated at 295 horsepower. Volkswagen has also told Car and Driver that our ID. Buzz will have a larger-capacity battery than the 82kWh pack (77kWh net) available elsewhere.
We should have all the official specs following the reveal in June, so keep in touch.
