Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles used the Düsseldorf Caravan Salon to launch the ID. California Cruise, the first fully electric car to wear the California name. It is an ID. Buzz Pro with a bed in the back, and Volkswagen has been careful not to pretend otherwise.
The exterior modifications are California lettering on the liftgate and California Cruise decals on the flanks. That is the list. Short and long wheelbase versions are offered, German pricing opens at 60,761 euros (70,813 dollars), and it arrives early next year.
The Bed Is A Small Double
The rear platform houses a tri-fold mattress measuring 2,030 by 1,200 mm (80 by 47.2 inches) and 9 cm (3.5 inches) thick. Volkswagen says two people can sleep comfortably on it.
Twelve hundred millimetres is worth holding still for a moment. A standard European double mattress is 1,400 mm wide and a UK double is 1,350 mm. At 1,200 mm the ID. California Cruise is offering what the bedding industry calls a small double, which works out to 600 mm per person. That is roughly the width of an airline seat with the armrests included, and the mattress under it is three and a half inches thick.
It sleeps two. Whether it sleeps two comfortably depends heavily on which two.
What The Battery Does When You Stop Driving It
The genuinely useful engineering is electrical rather than furniture. A retained power function keeps interior lighting, USB charging and climate control running with the van parked, for up to 48 hours depending on starting charge and outside temperature. Vehicle-to-load supplies up to 2,000 watts, enough for a kettle, an induction plate, a cooler or a coffee machine.
That last figure is the real argument for an electric camper. A diesel van needs a leisure battery, a gas locker and a hookup to do what this does from the traction pack it already carries.
Elsewhere the equipment list is modest: two camping chairs and a table stored in a zippered bag beneath the rear platform, removable front window vents or blackout curtains, and Miwo-pattern seat covers with a California wordmark stitched in.
America Gets The Same Van Under A Different Name
The ID. California Cruise is not coming to the United States. What is coming is the ID. Buzz Tourer 4Motion, which Volkswagen describes as having a fold-out mattress, front ventilation panels, window blinds, and an exterior table and chairs.
Read those two specifications next to each other and the difference is the badge. Americans get the camping kit; Europeans get the camping kit plus sixty years of nameplate. Volkswagen is charging for a word, which is what nameplates are for, but it is unusual to see the two versions announced close enough together to compare directly.
Volkswagen has said more electric California variants will follow by 2028. The ID. California Cruise reaches European dealers early next year.
