Eight-time Guinness World Record holder Rainer Zietlow has set off on a world record tour with a VW ID. Buzz through more than 75 countries. The tour began at the headquarters of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles in Hanover, departing from the customer center at the Buzz plant. The 55-year-old from Mannheim, along with his team, plans to traverse 75 countries. Interested parties can find the current location and reports from previous sections of the journey on his website www.idbuzz-worldtour.com. The tour takes Zietlow to New Zealand on the eastern part of the route and to Vancouver in Canada on the western
part. Where there are roads, the team will drive the record attempt straight through, using the ferry passages and necessary customs breaks as pauses. The ID. Buzz World Tour will last more than eight months.
“With the 86 kWh battery of the ID. Buzz, we achieve ranges of more than 400 kilometers per charge,” Zietlow calculates, “allowing me to tackle segments through sparsely populated stretches.”
His ID. Buzz is in standard condition, but it has an additional charger on board to draw high voltage up to 125 amps as needed and convert it to direct current wherever there are no
fast chargers or where the standard for direct current charging is different, such as in China, Japan, and North America. Zietlow does not lack experience.
“I have traveled to more than 110 countries so far and even reached Qatar with my previous ID. Buzz,” the Mannheim native reflects. For the current tour, he took about a year to prepare: “I am not a factory driver but drive on my own dime, supported by my partners.”
This includes Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles as the manufacturer of the ID. Buzz. “We are very impressed that Rainer has the courage and know-how to undertake
such a world tour with an electric vehicle,” says Lars Krause, a member of the brand board at the start in Hanover. “I myself travel long distances in the ID. Buzz and can report that charging is really no longer a problem, at least in Europe. Rainer’s team will certainly inspire many people to switch to a fully electric vehicle with this tour," Krause continues. The spare parts supply for the ID. Buzz is also secured just in case: in many countries that Rainer Zietlow traverses, the model has now been introduced, including Indonesia and Australia, Taiwan and Japan, the
