German explorer and multiple Guinness World Record holder Rainer Zietlow is aiming to set a new world record for visiting the most countries in a single journey using an electric vehicle. The 55-year-old from Mannheim recently embarked on this ambitious expedition from Volkswagen’s Commercial Vehicles Customer Center in Hanover, Germany. He plans to travel through 75 countries—including Australia, New Zealand, and across the Americas—driving a long-wheelbase version of Volkswagen ID.Buzz.
The ID.Buzz World Tour is expected to span up to eight months. If successful, Zietlow’s epic journey would set a new world record and earn him his ninth official Guinness World Record since 2005.
ID.Buzz World Tour To Take Eight Months, Cover 50,000 Miles
Rainer Zietlow is set to cover over 80,000 kilometers—about 50,000 miles—on his ambitious electric vehicle journey. The route spans Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania, ending in New Zealand. From there, the ID.Buzz team will ship the vehicle via South Africa to South America, continuing through the Americas into Canada, before crossing the Atlantic back to Europe. If this route sounds familiar, it’s because this isn’t the first long-distance drive from Europe to Australia featured on HARJA.
It’s important to note that the journey must be completed “on the vehicle’s own four wheels,” with exceptions only for shipping and necessary border crossing procedures. Zietlow is driving a production-spec long wheelbase version of the ID.Buzz, equipped with the larger 86-kilowatt-hour battery. This gives the retro-inspired electric van a range of over 400 kilometers (about 250 miles) per charge.
To support the journey, the ID.Buzz has one key modification: an extra on-board charger. This charger converts high-voltage alternating current (AC) to direct current (DC), enabling charging in remote areas where fast chargers aren’t available. The team is also carrying numerous spare parts in case of breakdowns, though Volkswagen hasn’t shared specific details about these components.
Technically, this expedition is an independent venture. However, Volkswagen has supplied the vehicle and, along with partners like Giti Tires, Maxion Wheels, and charging specialist Elli, officially supports the journey.
“I am not a company driver; I drive on my own account and at my own risk, but supported by my partners… I’ve traveled to more than 110 countries so far and have already made it to Qatar with my ID.Buzz predecessor.”
– Rainer Zietlow
25th Collaboration Between Zietlow And Volkswagen
This is far from Zietlow’s first global driving adventure. Back in 1996, eight years after crossing the Sahara in a Mercedes 230—and six years after completing the same journey in reverse in a Toyota BJ55 Land Cruiser—he took on a unique challenge: to visit every city named Coburg in the world. There are only seven such cities, spread across three continents, and he accomplished this feat driving a Land Rover Defender.
This won’t be Zietlow’s first adventure with Volkswagen, either. Across their 24 previous collaborations, they’ve tackled impressive feats such as driving close to 20,000 feet above sea level in Chile’s Atacama Desert in 2005 with a production Touareg, and circumnavigating six continents in a natural gas-powered Caddy EcoFuel from 2006 to 2007. In 2013, they completed a 60-day, 9,900-mile journey from Moscow to Petropavlovsk, Russia, using three caterpillar-track-converted Amaroks. In 2022, they set a new world record for the highest altitude electric vehicle drive, reaching 19,081 feet with an ID.4. They also created the largest GPS drawing by a battery-electric car—replicating the VW logo—which covered approximately 14,800 miles behind the wheel of an ID.4 GTX.
