VW ID. Buzz Gets 5 Stars From Euro NCAP

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Volkswagen’s futuristic, electric version of its iconic hippie van has now gotten its Euro NCAP rating, and it’s good — 5 stars!

“The European test organisation Euro NCAP has announced its latest vehicle safety test results. With the ID. Buzz, a new Volkswagen model has also been awarded a ‘very good’ rating and received the best possible score of five stars,” Volkswagen shares.

The ID. Buzz got a score of 92% overall. In terms of safety assist, the ID. Buzz got a 90% in that realm.

The ID. Buzz joins its electric sibling the ID.5 in its 5-star rating. So, whether you want an electric, 21st century hippie van or a more typical small SUV/crossover, Volkswagen’s got you covered with two options with top safety scores.

Volkswagen Leading EV Charging in Europe

Aside from Volkswagen’s good news on the safety front, the German automaker also recently highlighted its charging leadership in Europe. Across 27 European countries, Volkswagen now has a network of 400,000 EV charging stations for its electric car drivers.

“With our brand Elli, we offer the largest ecosystem for drivers of electric vehicles in Europe and are continuing to press full speed ahead in our work to expand the charging network,” SVP of Charging & Energy Elke Temme said.

Note that this Elli network is not an exclusive network of charging stations. It actually includes stations from 800 different charging providers. Nonetheless, for an EV drivers, a station you can use is a station you can use. The number of stations in the Elli network doubled in just 18 months, going from about 200,000 to about 400,000. A big recent addition to the network was Fastned’s stations, and another was Vattenfall’s.

“Quick and easy to use and, above all, available throughout Europe: The charging network of the Volkswagen subsidiary Elli is expanding. In the process, the company has entered into a large number of alliances and partnerships, including ones with such energy suppliers as Enel and Iberdrola, the petroleum group BP and the joint venture IONITY. The aim of this work is quite simple: to provide drivers of electric vehicles with a tightly knit international charging network which is easily accessible. About 800 providers are currently integrated. Most recently, Elli added about 24,000 Vattenfall stations in Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden along with 1,000 high-power charging points (HPC) operated by Fastned in the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Belgium, France and Switzerland. A few months earlier, the network was massively expanded in Great Britain with the addition of 6,800 charging stations managed by BP Pulse.”

The Elli network is not just for Volkswagen brand EV drivers, but for drivers of EVs from various Volkswagen Group brands — SEAT, CUPRA, ŠKODA AUTO, and Volkswagen. “The charging service offered by AUDI will be integrated into the portfolio next year: Charging with Audi | Audi MediaCenter (audi-mediacenter.com)”

Elli currently employs about 250 people.

Going from 200,0000 Elli stations to 400,000 in the course of 18 months, what will the next 18 months bring? I’m not sure we can expect the same kind of growth, since much of the increase comes from simply adding existing networks/stations. We’ll see.