2023 VW ID. Buzz Back In Black As Spy Photos Show Prototype With Deceiving Camo

Volkswagen has been generating quite a lot of buzz (get it?) around its next dedicated electric vehicle part of the ID. family. Following the ID.3 hatchback and a trio of SUVs (ID.4, ID.5, and the China-only ID.6), a completely different body style will follow in 2022 with the unveiling of the hotly anticipated ID. Buzz. Previewed nearly four years ago at NAIAS in Detroit, the production model will be officially unveiled in the coming months.

 In the meantime, a black prototype was caught undergoing testing in a winter wonderland while still stubbornly carrying around a lot of deceiving camouflage. See those headlights? They're nothing but stickers. What about the taillights? Fake as well. Heck, even the fuel cap on the front fender on the driver's side is also just a decoy. In the words of Elaine Benes (played by Julia Louis Dreyfus) from Seinfeld: "Fake, fake, fake."

On the same subject, the upper white line at the front conceals an LED light strip for the daytime running lights. Those "fog lights" are once again just stickers since the real ones have likely been integrated into the main headlight. We could go on forever discussing this topic, pointing out the fake turn signals on the front fenders when they're actually built into the mirror caps.

The namesake concept from early 2017 had thin LED taillights and we're expecting the same thing from the road-going model. The prototype's rear clusters look as if they were taken from an older Opel Insignia. Our spies caught the passenger-oriented version, but it is a known fact a cargo model is also in the pipeline, and so is a California camper.

The production-ready 2023 VW ID. Buzz won't look as snazzy as the concept before it, but we still have high hopes it will bring a breath of fresh air to the van segment. Riding on the ubiquitous MEB platform, the zero-emissions people-mover built Hanover, Germany should come in rear- and all-wheel-drive configurations courtesy of a single- or dual-motor setup, respectively.

After its world premiere in early 2022, the Buzz will initially go on sale in Europe later next year before arriving to the United States at some point in 2023 and only as a passenger model. In 2025, an autonomous robotaxi will follow.