A German man has just entered the official record books with an eye-watering 60,000-mile journey around the world in a Volkswagen ID.Buzz. 

Rainer Zetlow from Mannheim, which is just south of Frankfurt, set off on his journey in early 2025 in a series production model from Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles’ customer centre in Hannover. 

By coincidence, he made it back just in time to get his electric MPV on to Volkswagen’s show stand at IAA Transportation in Hannover, setting a Guinness record in the process. 

The journey took 445 days and covered 61,992 miles (99,767km), taking in 92 countries across six continents. 

It means that Zietlow now holds a Guinness world record for “Most countries visited in a continuous journey by a battery powered electric vehicle”. 

The official release accompanying Zietlow’s return states ‘Technical breakdowns: 0’, which does make you wonder what other breakdowns did occur on the trip, but probably best not to pry. 

The long-wheelbase ID.Buzz Pro was shipped across oceans in a container 16 times to make the trip, with the land crossings entailing more than 300 charges. 

Volkswagen says that the ID.Buzz has been officially certified by German outfit TÜV Nord with over 95% battery health after the trip. Probably not done wonders for the resale value though. 

Zietlow said he had returned home with a “mixed” impression of charging infrastructure across the world. 

“In parts of Africa there is virtually no charging infrastructure – in countries such as Zambia or Tanzania there was simply nothing available, so I charged at national substations under supervision.”

By way of contrast, he said, was China, which is “in a league of its own – there, electric mobility is part of everyday life. The bottom line: it is increasing worldwide, and in many regions it is being built very quickly.”