VW’s hippie classic reborn, electrified — and yours for the weekend

At last I know what driving an ice-cream van feels like. Behind the wheel of one of the first all-electric Volkswagen campervans, I am the most popular guy on the road. Deep in the Sussex Downs, groups of men outside pubs elbow each other and point. Fellow campervanners mouth “Wow!” at roundabouts. Whenever my partner and I park, strangers sidle up to ask if they can take a peep inside.

The van has a lot of legacy to live up to. The VW Type 2, after which it’s styled, was launched in 1949 and became an icon of 20th-century counterculture (Type 1 was the Beetle). The vans were initially produced with seats or without, but soon other companies such as Westfalia and Dormobile were adding beds, cookers and sometimes pop-up roofs to convert them into campers — the perfect base for a surfing safari or alternative adventure. Little wonder the van became known as the hippie-mobile.

It may come as a surprise that VW has taken so long to cash in on this cultural capital, but this has been a rebirth 22 years in the making. The company showed its first retro-styled Microbus concept car at the Detroit motorshow in 2001 only for progress to stall, then emphasis shift to creating an electrically powered version. After three more motorshow teaser vehicles, the first ID Buzz finally rolled off the production line late last year. The wait has served only to build anticipation — even if the final result screams more “yuppie” than “hippie”.

From its vintage-inspired design cues to the Bassett’s Allsorts colour options and roomy interior, for well-heeled buyers of a nostalgic bent it promises to be as much a signifier of one’s fun-loving eco credentials as a useful way to get about. And buy it they have — in March it was reported that for certain specs (including the essential two-tone paint job) waiting lists are as long as 18 months.

Like its ancestor, the ID Buzz comes with seats or without, but VW says it will release its own campervan edition, the ID California, in 2025. Until then, it’s again down to third-party companies to take the Buzz and turn it into a camper — and this weekend I’m testing one of the earliest examples to hit the road, as well as the first in the UK to be available to rent. The conversion has been done by Sussex company Love Campers, and the van is rented out (from £150 a night) by Brighton-based Wild Drives. (ID Buzz campers are also starting to become available with other rental companies internationally, including Siesta Campers in Portugal and Arctic Campers in Norway).

Having whirred our way from the Brighton seafront through Sussex to our campsite near Rye (where I spot a ’90s-vintage camper along with the usual crowd of modern, luxurious, VW California vans), we slide open the Buzz’s cargo doors to check out our home for the night. Love Campers’ engineers have squeezed a solar-powered induction hob, sink, fridge and pullout bed into the back of the van, with a fridge tucked under the sofa bench and as many storage cupboards as can be crammed into the compact space. Finished with eco-friendly bamboo worktops and interior cladding (plus slinky bamboo bed linen), it’s high-end but undeniably spartan. No bathrooms here, and the mini-double bed is cosy, so you’ve got to be fairly fond of your travelling partner.

In the driver’s seat, meanwhile, Volkswagen has laid on the bells and whistles. As an introduction to EV driving the ID Buzz is a revelation. It is comically, joyously easy to drive. VW clearly knows it too; our vehicle is fitted with accelerator and brake pedals stamped with the Play and Pause icons.

A stalk behind the steering wheel controls the drive mode (including the nifty “regenerative braking” that charges the battery as you slow down to boost range). With a 150kW motor, it’s very nippy in spite of its 2,500kg, and feels nimble and poised on the road — in marked contrast to some original Type 2s, which could handle like a boat.

VW has long since mastered its smartphone integration, and hooking up my iPhone to CarPlay was seamless. The 10in touchscreen is within easy reach and comfortably big enough to make reading maps a doddle. The outstanding feature, however, is the optional active cruise control and lane keeping, which keeps you a safe distance behind the vehicle ahead and happily steers for you. The claimed range of 250 or so miles on a charge is plenty for a weekend gallivant; the Buzz probably isn’t the choice for epic trans-European road trips, but then it probably isn’t big enough for that kind of trekking anyway.

There’s a contradiction in all this, of course. It’s hard to claim that the free-love spirit of the original camper has been revived in a vehicle whose cheapest passenger model starts at almost £60,000, with campervan conversions running into the thousands on top of that. And then seamless GPS and Spotify integration don’t conjure the same magic as a dog-eared map marked scruffily in biro and a transistor radio hanging from the rear-view mirror.

I half-wonder whether something essential has been lost along the way. But in the morning, with the kettle and mugs safely stowed, we head east for the endless pebble beaches of Dungeness. I settle back into the driving seat, my partner fires up a #VanLife playlist, I flip the electric motor into Drive, stomp on the Play pedal and the roads unfurl in front of us. Our adoring crowds await. The Buzz is the perfect getaway from everyday life — even if only for a weekend.

Find out about our latest stories first — follow @ftweekend on Twitter