Can’t wait for an electric California? Here’s one of the first ID Buzz campervans
IF there’s one electric van that’s dominated the column inches, not just in the specialist press but much further afield, it is Volkswagen’s ID Buzz. How could it not hog the limelight? Long awaited, it finally went on sale last year and mated retro Type 2-inspired design with Volkswagen’s Modular Electric drive (MEB) platform (as used by various VW Group cars). Here at last is a vehicle that’s not just a diesel van adapted to battery power but a van with truly desirable design combined with class-leading range. A full review of the VW base vehicle appeared in our February issue, along with a video – see motorhome.ma/review269 Volkswagen has promised a California campervan built on this funky EV but you’ll have to wait another couple of years (at least) before that’s likely to hit the market. In the meantime, we knew it wouldn’t take our resourceful UK campervan industry long to come up with an ID Buzz conversion and this one, from Brighton-based Love Campers, is the first we’ve seen. It attracted more attention than even free beer could have mustered at the recent Campervan Campout show at Ardingly.
Based on the ID Buzz Cargo, the van version rather than the more swishly appointed people-carrier, it’s worth addressing the elephant in the room first of all – and that’s that only the smallest baby elephant would fit in this van. While overall length is just 192mm down on a T6.1, its interior space – the space available to live in when it’s a camper – is considerably less. And that’s compounded by a lack – yet – of the sort of commercially available components that are produced by numerous manufacturers for the Transporter; pop-top roofs, swivel cab seats, and seat/bed systems (even windows for the rear barn doors).
So, instead of the usual side kitchen layout that you’d expect to see in a T6.1, the Love Campers ID Buzz has a galley along the nearside, running aft of the sliding door, and a side-facing settee opposite. It’s more akin to the sort of conversion typically seen in small, car-derived vans such as the Citroën Berlingo and Peugeot Partner.
The galley here is finished in an eye-catching yellow and white duo-tone to perfectly replicate the exterior scheme – achieved with a wrapped lower half (sadly, VW only offers the ID Buzz Cargo in a range of six single colours or two-tone Candy White with Starlight Blue). The furniture is constructed from a modern ply laminate and bamboo, while fittings appropriately eschew gas for electric cooking on a single-r
