Volkswagen ID. Buzz vs Mercedes-Benz Esprinter

What's the difference?

You might call it six degrees of Kombi separation. Somewhere, somehow just about all of us have a VW bus lurking in our family and friends' back story. And this is the latest version of that familiar box on wheels to hit the Aussie market.

It’s the premium, sportier, AWD GTX version of the pure-electric Volkswagen ID.Buzz.

This one-box wonder hits the retro-futurist ball out of the park and we attended its local launch to explore whether what’s under the skin supports the promise of its stunning exterior.

The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter range of vans and cab-chassis models competes for buyers in the Light Duty (3501-8000kg GVM) segment of Australia’s highly competitive Heavy Commercial vehicle market.

In 2024 the German manufacturer expanded its diverse turbo-diesel van range by launching a full-electric variant called the eSprinter, which for the first time offered local buyers the opportunity to drive with zero tailpipe emissions.

We recently spent a working week with this unique offering to assess how competently it could fulfil the diverse job requirements of private tradie buyers and fleet operators.