Volkswagen announced on Friday plans to reveal a new performance vehicle during its annual press conference happening March 21. The company published a teaser image to LinkedIn alongside the announcement showing the headlight silhouette of an ID.Buzz electric van, suggesting a high-performance version of VW’s people-mover is less than a month away.
Confirmed for production at the beginning of 2023, the ID.Buzz GTX will join the company’s other sporty EV offerings, the ID.3 GTX and the ID.7 GTX Tourer, in VW’s growing list of high-performance, zero-emissions vehicles.
Volkswagen’s been mum on details regarding the ID.Buzz GTX, saying only that it’ll make 335 horsepower thanks to a dual-motor all-wheel drive system, mirroring output on the ID.7 GTX. We expect other upgrades too, like a stiffer suspension, better brakes, bigger wheels, and a sportier interior.
The ID.Buzz GTX has been on our radar for months now. An all-white test mule said to be a prototype for the car was spotted by our spy photographers on the road last summer. Not long after that, it was caught lapping the Nürburgring during an industry test pool session. So the timing of this reveal makes sense.
It’s unclear right now whether Volkswagen is planning to bring this high-performance ID.Buzz variant to the United States. Neither the ID.3 GTX nor the ID.7 GTX tourer are slated for US consumption, and the normal ID.Buzz has yet to even go on sale Stateside. Moreover, Volkswagen’s electric GTI has yet to be greenlit for the US. With demand for electric vehicles waning, a sporty EV van sounds like a very niche product that might not conjure the demand VW expects. Either way, we’d love to give one a go.