Volkswagen CEO Herbert Deiss recently admitted that the company formerly approached the US market with the wrong outlook, saying that VW "didn't take the US customer seriously enough" because it tried to sell European products to them. Fortunately, that culture is quickly changing with the news that the German automaker wants to make an electric truck for the American market. In addition, when the ID.Buzz all-electric van was revealed, Volkswagen had already realized that it would need to make a longer version for our market and promised that such a thing would arrive in 2024. As that due date approaches, our spy photographers have captured the first images of the longer model undergoing cold-weather testing.

ID.Buzz project manager Jeffrey Lear told us at the recent New York Auto Show that this model would have a similar footprint to an Atlas and that "all the additional length will come from the wheelbase." This seems to be true, as the test mule you see here looks very similar to those we saw before the Euro-spec ID.Buzz got its production body. Speaking of, the look you see here is not what will follow for our model. Instead, Volkswagen has placed a Transporter body atop the skateboard chassis of the ID.Buzz. Confirming this is the closed-up front end and the lack of any exhaust pipes.

Retaining that funky styling is imperative to the success of America's Volkswagen ID.Buzz as it's what has drawn so many US-based enthusiasts to enquire about the vehicle. Volkswagen has already said that it expects to sell 120,000 units per year in markets where the ID.Buzz has already been launched, and the US is unlikely to be much less successful. Sadly, we are yet to learn what our market-specific powertrains' outputs, range, and abilities will be, but with the smaller, lighter, entry-level Euro-spec model produces 201 horsepower and 220 lb-ft of torque, with more powerful and more capable setups still to follow. Keep an eye out for a full reveal sometime toward the end of 2023 before it goes on sale domestically in 2024.