Smart Homes: Easy Living for Busy Lives

The Dawn of the E-Vanlife Revolution

Like most people, I’ve long been intrigued by the idea of electric cars, but never quite felt ready to make the leap. I can name every Tesla model, a few pickups from Ford and Rivian, and that’s about it. But when Volkswagen announced the production model of the all-electric ID Buzz, which began hitting European roads last year, well, suddenly I was very interested.

You see, I’m the kind of guy who spent a week living in a VW Transporter T5 Ventje last year and once rented a vintage Type 2 VW Microbus named Fergus for a summer, just to wild camp around Scotland with my family. Generally, I abhor blatant attempts to convert nostalgia into product or ticket sales, but VW had me hooked ever since the ID Buzz was introduced as a far-out concept. That is, until I learned the unthinkable – the ID Buzz would launch in passenger and cargo variants only, no California campervan. For that, I’d have to wait until 2025 or longer. Ugh.

Then, a few months ago, I discovered the aftermarket Ququq BusBox-4 camping box. It converts either the ID Buzz passenger or cargo vans into a two-person camper – and back – in just minutes. And it’s available right now, at around £2,790 (about $3,000), a fraction of the premium the VW ID California will likely demand. So, I decided to put the ID Buzz and Ququq to the test to answer two main questions: can today’s ID Buzz already function as an electric campervan, and can it support remote work for an extended period of time?

Embracing the Electrified Microbus

With that in mind, I packed up my wife and dog and began a nearly 2,000-mile round trip trek across Europe, from Amsterdam in the north to Milan in the south, on a loosely planned road trip that still required us to clock in at work each morning. We slept, worked, and ate – minus a few lunches – exclusively from the ID Buzz for a period of two weeks. The experience was an epiphany for me, a first-time EV driver and aspiring digital nomad, with many lessons learned along the way.

The age of e-vanlife is dawning, and our experience with the ID Buzz is a preview of what’s to come. To be clear, this isn’t a review of the VW ID Buzz electric van – there are lots of places you can get that from people with much more car experience than I have. This is a review of the ID Buzz as an adaptable do-it-all campervan, one vehicle that serves a variety of needs. For that reason, my single favorite feature is an optional 331 DC-to-AC inverter that places a European standard 230V power socket beneath the front passenger seat. More on that later.

Channeling the Spirit of the Microbus

The ID Buzz is built upon the same MEB platform as VW’s first electric car, the ID3, just like the original Type 2 Microbus derived from the Type 1 Beetle. So, in reality, the ID Buzz is more than just a cheap nostalgia ploy – it’s following the same evolutionary path as its incredibly iconic and successful predecessors. Knowing that makes me feel less like a hapless victim of the sentimentality machine – or so I tell myself.

My review vehicle is a fully loaded ID Buzz 1st Max Edition passenger van with every option possible. It’s priced at almost €80,000 (about $88,000), which includes roughly €14,000 of taxes here in the Netherlands. For comparison, it’s still much cheaper than a €113,990 base Tesla Model X SUV in the Dutch market at the time of publication.

I will say this in summary of the ID Buzz itself: everyone who drove it or saw it loved it. People were so charmed by it that they would engage me with questions when parked at charging stations or pull up alongside while driving to flash thumbs-up and hang-loose gestures. It was smiles all around, very similar to the joy we spread when driving that delightful old Type 2 around Scotland. Hell, if you look at the front end of the ID Buzz just right, even it seems to be smiling.

Powering the E-Vanlife Dream

The ID Buzz’s low center of gravity, optional 21-inch wheels, and rear-wheel drive combine for a surprisingly fun drive. It also offers excellent visibility for a large car that actually feels small, thanks to a windshield that drops down to clearly mark the front of the car and a bevy of sensors and cameras that alert you to nearby objects. It also has a surprisingly tight turning radius, which was very useful when navigating narrow Italian streets.

But I agree with reviewers who say the infotainment system is underpowered and convoluted, with a mix of interfaces that leave you wondering if a push, pull, or touch is the expected input – things you’ll eventually develop muscle memory for. The button for the hazard lights, for example, is touch-sensitive for some reason, resulting in three accidental triggers.

I’m not a car guy, but I do love a big rolling battery that can power all my gadgets. So, when I look at the ID Buzz, I see a giant power plant. But as large as the VW ID Buzz is, the battery maxes out at just 82kWh, of which only 77kWh is usable. That’s not a lot for its size, especially when you consider that it’s the same battery capacity found inside the smaller VW ID4 and ID5.

As an EV noob, I didn’t realize that when people say electric cars are cheaper to refuel than their gasoline cousins, they’re talking about slow charging at home during off-peak energy hours. The scales tip dramatically when charging from ultra-fast chargers along the highway. I ended up putting 3,000km (nearly 2,000 miles) on the odometer in my two weeks with the ID Buzz, with nearly all of my energy coming from ultra-fast chargers.

The majority of my stops were at Ionity stations, which charge €0.79 per kWh throughout Europe. 3,000km traveled with an average range of 239kWh per 100km (60 miles) means I paid around €566 for the 717kWh of energy I consumed when refilling almost exclusively from ultra-fast DC chargers.

For comparison, let’s use a current VW T7 Multivan fitted with an entry-level 1.5 TSI gasoline engine that consumes about 8.1 liters of fuel every 100 kilometers. Traveling the same distance would have cost €442 based on the average price for unleaded gas (€1.82 at the time) in Italy, where I spent most of my days. Opting for the more efficient 2.0 TDI diesel engine, rated for about 6.6 liters per 100 kilometers, would have brought the fuel costs down to €360.

Conquering Range Anxiety

The battery capacity was a concern for me – a first-time EV driver – given the conditions I planned to drive in. You see, EVs perform optimally in warmer temps around 21°C (70°F) and at city speeds where regenerative braking can do its thing. My planned route was likely to be cold and fast along great swaths of alpine highway to cover as much of the European charging network as possible. I also planned to regularly tap into the VW’s high-voltage battery while working to keep the van heated and all my gear powered on. It wasn’t long until I understood what range anxiety felt like, and I hadn’t even left the house.

Temperatures on my route ranged from -3°C to about 17°C (27°F to 63°F) during my two weeks of testing, but mostly they hovered between 3°C and 12°C (37°F to 53°F) on average. That meant the car needed to be continuously heated, which lowered my overall range since the ID Buzz lacks a heat pump found on more efficient EVs. And yes, I can confirm that the ID Buzz has a top speed of 150km/h (93mph), which I verified a few times on the German autobahn.

Based upon my usage – which included siphoning about 5kWh per day to support living and working from the ID Buzz – I was burning through an average of 239kWh every 100km (60 miles) or nearly a third of my battery capacity as reported by the ID Buzz’s infotainment system. That equates to 239Wh consumed per kilometer traveled or 26 miles per kWh, putting it much closer to a Ford F-150 Lightning in terms of efficiency than a Tesla Model 3.

My driving yielded a range of around 322km (200 miles) per charge – well short of the heavily asterisked 423km (263 miles) WLTP range that VW quotes in its European marketing, but in line with the 330km real-range data reported by EV Database. But here’s the thing: despite these rather underwhelming figures and being a total EV novice, after just one or two days of travel, I never again felt anxious about my range.

Mostly because we’re spoiled with choice of fast chargers here in Europe, something I quickly discovered as I meandered my way through the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, and Italy. I found Europe’s network of ultra-fast DC chargers (300kW and greater) offered by companies like FastNed, Shell, Ionity, GoFast, and yes, Tesla, to be surprisingly robust. They were plentiful, located conveniently next to food shops and space to run our high-energy dog. And not once did I have to wait for a stall at any DC charging stations we pulled into, even when traveling during the long Easter weekend.

In fact, I usually arrived to find the majority of stalls unoccupied and available for immediate ultra-fast charging. And unlike what many have experienced in the US, I can only recall seeing a single broken charger on my entire 3,000km journey. The ID Buzz supports a stated maximum of 170kW DC fast charging from its CCS port, with a relatively flat charging curve that allows it to go from 5% to 80% in about 30 minutes. My stops often lasted longer, though, about 45 minutes to an hour, because we wanted to charge to 100% and because the stops were a welcome and enjoyable break after two to three hours of driving, especially when you can just open the tailgate and cook up a quick meal.

The Ququq Transformation

VW says a camper version of the ID Buzz is coming – someday – but it hasn’t committed to a firm timeline yet. That’s where Ququq (pronounced “kookook”) comes in. It’s a small German company that’s been making all-in-one camping boxes for a variety of vehicles for more than a decade. As an official VW accessory supplier, its party trick is the ability to convert the ID Buzz – cargo or passenger van – into a functional camper complete with a kitchen and bed in less than 10 minutes.

I tested the Ququq BusBox-4 camping box designed specifically to turn the ID Buzz into a tiny mobile home. It really is a marvel of ingenuity – and value, too, if you force your brain to squint a little. See, when VW does finally deliver a true ID California campervan based on the Buzz, it could easily add tens of thousands to the already steep price, same as VW’s current California camper series can more than double the price of a base Transporter today.

The Ququq BusBox-4, however, costs just a fraction of that at £2,790 (about $3,000), while making it easy to convert that five-seater into a weekend campervan for mom and dad and their dog, while the kids sleep outside in a tent. The Ququq weighs 62kg (137 pounds) and requires two people to lift the camping box into the back of the ID Buzz. It fits just behind the passenger bench, where it’s secured to the van’s lashing points with included ratchet straps. It’s a little inelegant, but it gets the job done, and it’s easy enough for a couple of sturdy humans to swap in and out of the van whenever the desire strikes.

The 10cm-thick mattress sleeps two comfortably, measuring 125 x 195cm when unfolded over the collapsed passenger bench. That makes for a rather snug arrangement that my wife and I nevertheless found to be sufficiently roomy. Unfolding the three-part bed requires the perfect combination of strength and finesse, which we could each do solo and safely – watch your fingers after a few days of practice.

Inside the BusBox-4, you’ll find a compact but efficient kitchen. Open it up, and the door folds down to create a convenient table. On the left, you can slide out a two-burner gas stove with space beneath for things like spices, coffee and tea supplies, cutlery, and cooking utensils. Fold up the windscreen and lock the small butane cartridges into place, and you’re ready to start cooking with fire.

In the middle of the opened Ququq is a slide-out drawer holding a small 12V fridge that can be controlled with a Bluetooth app – it’s not needed. It’s powered by a cable that snakes through the vents of the Ququq box and back to the 12V socket near the Buzz’s lift gate. The fridge can also be a freezer, but it’s either/or, not both at the same time. It’s nothing special and not very big at 15 liters, but still proved suitable to our needs. If you need more space, then a 20-liter fridge is also available.

Lastly, on the right of the open BusBox-4, you have a pair of 10-liter (26-gallon) freshwater tanks with a simple screw-on valve attachment. This section also includes two useful stainless steel trays for help with washing up and two reasonably comfortable chairs that tuck away neatly into a recess when not in use. There’s nothing fancy here, and it does look slightly incongruous to the clean modern lines of ID Buzz. Still, it’s a smart design that’s executed with durable and easy-to-clean materials like treated plywood and aluminum.

Powering the Off-Grid Life

VW’s so high on the Ququq x ID Buzz pairing that the two have been featured in official press materials. I had hoped that VW would give the ID Buzz a Tesla-like Camp Mode, whereby you can stay inside the van for hours while still enjoying powered jacks, lights, music, and heating. Sadly, that was not the case, and there’s no indication if VW will ever offer this, at least not until the ID California campervan arrives.

And while the fully maxed-out ID Buzz I was driving was fitted with a single 230V jack under the front passenger seat, it’s only active for about 30 minutes when the ignition is on and then for another 15 or 20 minutes after the ignition automatically shuts off due to inactivity. That presents a real problem when trying to charge a laptop or keep Starlink internet operating without interruption.

Nevertheless, living and working from an ID Buzz fitted with a Ququq is not only possible but also requires fewer compromises than you might think, just as long as you’re packing the right gear. On the power side, I brought along a small BaseCharge 1500 battery and solar panel from Biolite, a company best known for making fire pits in the past.

I had planned to bring a larger and more capable AC200Max solar generator from Bluetti, but when I plugged it into the Buzz’s 230V socket, it tripped the VW’s breaker. Unfortunately, the AC200Max draws a steady 500W, and the Buzz’s inverter can only produce 300W with a 450W surge. The BaseCharge 1500 pulled just 112W, and its smaller physical size turned out to be just right for our needs.

Without a camp mode, I also hoped that the ID Buzz’s bidirectional charging – a vehicle-to-home charging feature that appeared on my infotainment system but requires a future firmware update to activate – would be ready for my journey. That would give me another way to keep the solar generator charged or power my Starlink’s router and dish via an adapter. Alas, the update never arrived, and the firmware release is still TBD.

So, my strategy was to charge the Biolite BaseCharge