We're still eagerly awaiting the arrival of the civilian Volkswagen ID Buzz on these shores—it'll arrive as a 2024 model, so the emphasis is on the "waiting" part of the word—but over in Europe, VW Commercial is already hard at work adapting the electric van to do commercial-y things. It may not look as workmanlike as the other vans in the Volkswagen Commercial stable, like the Transporter, Multivan, Caddy, and Crafter. But with a compact footprint and plenty of room inside, the ID Buzz can and will do serious business things. These concepts—well, less concepts in the traditional sense and more like examples of how the van will be modified for small- and large business uses—give us a sense of what the ID Buzz will look like in work mode.

For private customers, the ID Buzz will be a seat-filled people-mover—and it will fulfill that role as well, as a taxi or ride-hailing vehicle in many markets. The "Flex-Cab" concept by Dutch upfitter Snoeks is a somewhat normal-looking ID Buzz that features a flexible interior, able to haul people and/or cargo depending on needs. Hauling workers to the job site with their gear? Reconfigurable vans like the Flex-Cab are the tool for the job.

The brightly-colored ID Buzz up top isn't an ambulance, but it's a paramedic vehicle, intending to get up to three first responders to the scene with medical equipment in tow. Or rather, inside, with a modular conversion by Bösenberg. Interestingly, the lights, sirens, and other equipment aren't operated by the traction battery, but rather by a separate battery bank—presumably to ensure that operating as a paramedic vehicle doesn't unduly impact the overall range.

The most altered ID Buzz is the box van conversion, which was done by Veth Automotive. With the box in place, this van can haul 1,500 pounds and nearly doubles the cargo capacity. There are numerous door configurations available for both the side and rear, including roll-up, sliding, or conventional doors. As far as we know, Volkswagen isn't doing factory chassis cab-like variants, so this is presumably a cut-and-graft job requiring permanent relocation of the bus's butt.

There's also a cargo version with a refrigeration unit, complete with its own set of lithium-ion batteries and an inverter to supply power to the 230-volt cooling unit on the roof. It'll keep items inside cool for up to eight hours and can hold 860 pounds—which is a whole lot of ice cream.

While we'll have to wait until upfitters, converters, and other commercial customers get their mitts on the ID Buzz over here, at least they'll have lots of ideas to build off of as the Europeans get a first crack at using the ID Buzz in commercial service.