Volkswagen Type 2 bus lined up next to the ID. Buzz
CNBC | Sydney Boyo | Andrew Evers
The “bus,” as many fans know it, is deeply ingrained in American culture and evolved into a symbol of protest starting in the 1960s.
“There was an unpopular war. There were conflicting ideas of what the American dream was,” said Damon Ristau, the director and producer of “The Bus” documentary. “That culture grabbed on to these vehicles.”
As counterculture movements spread through the states, the bus was aligned with antiwar protests and hippies, and even was used by civil rights activists to transport schoolchildren in the segregated South.
From 1950 to 2003, four generations of the Type 2 bus were sold in the U.S., with nearly 1 million total deliveries, according to VW. The last generation imported to the U.S. was the T4 “Eurovan” model.
“After the Eurovan, the minivan segment was sort of on the decline,” said Jeffrey Lear, product manager of electric vehicles for Volkswagen of America. “The van segment in the U.S. comes with a lot of baggage. There are a lot of feelings that come with buying a van.”
Worldwide, VW has delivered nearly 19 million Type 2 buses since its inception, including the T5 through T7 generations which are still being developed in Europe, according to the company. With the ID. Buzz, VW is hoping to change up the narrative.
“It’s our modern interpretation of what we believe a bus is like for the future,” said Lear. “We’ll never call this a van or a minivan from Volkswagen of America. For us, this is a new segment. It is the bus segment.”
“There are a lot of people that have been very excited about this day for over 20 years,” said Ristau. “It’s sort of a homecoming reunion.”
The North American model will have three rows, a maximum of seven seats and a 91 kWh battery, but VW hasn’t released any details on the range or price. However, it says the range is comparable to the ID4, which has a maximum range of 275 miles per charge.
Volkswagen’s ID. Buzz driving on the road.
Andrew Evers
“It’s larger than our ID4,” said Lear. “And since this is a larger battery, you would think it’d get more. But when you take a look at this thing, you realize that it’s much larger and much less aerodynamic than an ID4. So, I think you can expect probably a hair under that figure,” he said.
In the past, the bus has been built all over the world, from VW’s native Germany to South Africa and Australia.
Currently, VW is assembling the electric ID.4 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, but it told CNBC it has no plans to extend that production to the ID Buzz, even with the Biden administration’s EV incentives.
“For now, we plan to just keep it in Europe,” said Lear.
Production will take place at VW’s Hannover, Germany, plant and it will be exported globally. Europe has already started presales of the model and the North American version is expected to arrive at dealers by 2024.
Watch the video to learn more about the evolution of the VW bus and its electric future.
Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer holds a “Morning Meeting” livestream at 10:20 a.m. ET. Here’s a recap of Friday’s key moments. 1. The S & P 500 turned higher Friday. The index opened lower after posting its worst one-day performance since Oct. 10. Still, Wall Street remains cautious of Big Tech’s heavy spending and stretched valuations. Jim Cramer reminded investors to stick with profitable companies — like Nvidia and Microsoft , both Club names, and Alphabet — rather than those that make promises they can’t back. While our trusted S & P Short Range Oscillator is not yet oversold, we’re eyeing some select buying opportunities among stocks that have pulled back. We’re preparing to free up more cash as we look to move on from Disney , where linear television networks have been weighing on profits. Jim said Disney is “in denial” about their challenges. 2. Shares of drugmaker Bristol Myers fell more than 3.5% on Friday after a phase 3 trial for one of its experimental drugs was halted due to a patient health issue. The drug in question was not Cobenfy — the schizophrenia treatment we’ve been bullish on for its potential use on Alzheimer’s. A big Cobenfy readout is due by the end of the year. It’s a make-or-break update for us as investors, given management’s consistent issues with execution. “It’s hard to have faith in management after a series of miscues,” said portfolio director Jeff Marks. We’ve been selling the stock, and as Jim said during Thursday’s November Monthly Meeting , if the shares resume their recent rise, we would look to trim further. 3. Looking ahead to next week, there are four Club names reporting earnings, starting with Home Depot on Tuesday before the opening bell. The near-term setup makes it challenging to maintain a positive stance due to the current elevated state of mortgage rates. At the same time, there’s a significant amount of pent-up demand in the housing sector, which should be beneficial for the home improvement retailer. Next up is TJX on Wednesday before the opening bell. The off-price retailer is a big under-promise, over-deliver story, as it tends to beat the high end of guidance. Nvidia also reports on Wednesday, but after the closing bell. There are a lot of bears on the stock right now, but Jim maintains his “own it, don’t trade it” stance. Finally, cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks reports on Wednesday, after the bell, and we’re interested in hearing how management plans to beef up its agent-based security. 4. Stocks covered in Friday’s rapid fire at the end of the video were: Applied Materials , Walmart , Gap , and Nucor . (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long DIS, BMY, HD, TJX, NVDA, PANW. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
An exterior view of the new JPMorgan Chase global headquarters building at 270 Park Avenue on Nov. 13, 2025 in New York City.
Angela Weiss | AFP | Getty Images
JPMorgan Chase has secured deals ensuring it will get paid by the fintech firms responsible for nearly all the data requests made by third-party apps connected to customer bank accounts, CNBC has learned.
The bank has signed updated contracts with fintech middlemen that make up more than 95% of the data pulls on its systems, including Plaid, Yodlee, Morningstar and Akoya, according to JPMorgan spokesman Drew Pusateri.
“We’ve come to agreements that will make the open banking ecosystem safer and more sustainable and allow customers to continue reliably and securely accessing their favorite financial products,” Pusateri said in a statement. “The free market worked.”
The milestone is the latest twist in a long-running dispute between traditional banks and the fintech industry over access to customer accounts. For years, middlemen like Plaid paid nothing to tap bank systems when a customer wanted to use a fintech app like Robinhood to draw funds or check balances.
That dynamic appeared to be enshrined in law in late 2024 when the Biden-era Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized what is known as the “open-banking rule” requiring banks to share customer data with other financial firms at no cost.
But banks sued to prevent the CFPB rule from taking hold and seemed to gain the upper hand in May after the Trump administration asked a federal court to vacate the rule.
Soon after, JPMorgan — the largest U.S. bank by assets, deposits and branches — reportedly told the middlemen that it would start charging what amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars for access to its customer data.
In response, fintech, crypto and venture capital executives argued that the bank was engaging in “anti-competitive, rent-seeking behavior” that would hurt innovation and consumers’ ability to use popular apps.
After weeks of negotiations between JPMorgan and the middlemen, the bank agreed to lower pricing than it originally proposed, while the fintech middlemen won concessions regarding the servicing of data requests, according to people with knowledge of the talks.
Fintech firms preferred the certainty of locking in data-sharing rates because it is unclear whether the current CFPB, which is in the process of revising the open-banking rule, will favor banks or fintechs, according to a venture capital investor who asked for anonymity to discuss his portfolio companies.
The bank and the fintech firms declined to disclose details about their contracts, including how much the middlemen agreed to pay and how long the deals were in force.
Wider impact
The deals mark a shift in the power dynamic between banks, middlemen and the fintech apps that are increasingly threatening incumbents. More banks are likely to begin charging fintechs for access to their systems, according to industry observers.
“JPMorgan tends to be a trendsetter. They’re sort of the leader of the pack, so it’s fair to expect that the rest of the major banks will follow,” said Brian Shearer, director of competition and regulatory policy at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator.
Shearer, who worked at the CFPB under former director Rohit Chopra, said he was worried that the development would create a barrier of entry to nascent startups and ultimately result in higher costs for consumers.
Source: Robinhood
Proponents of the 2024 CFPB rule said it gave consumers control over their financial data and encouraged competition and innovation. Banks including JPMorgan said it exposed them to fraud and unfairly saddled them with the rising costs of maintaining systems increasingly tapped by the middlemen and their clients.
When Plaid’s deal with JPMorgan was announced in September, the companies issued a dual press release emphasizing the continuity it provided for customers.
But the industry group that Plaid is a part of has harshly criticized the development, signaling that while JPMorgan has won a decisive battle, the ongoing skirmish may yet play out in courts and in the public.
“Introducing prohibitive tolls is anti-competitive, anti-innovation, and flies in the face of the plain reading of the law,” said Penny Lee, CEO of the Financial Technology Association, told CNBC in response to the JPMorgan milestone.
“These agreements are not the free market at work, but rather big banks using their market position to capitalize on regulatory uncertainty,” Lee said. “We urge the Trump Administration to uphold the law by maintaining the existing prohibition on data access fees.”
Govini has fired Eric Gillespie from its board of directors after the founder was charged with attempting to solicit sexual contact with a minor online.
“The actions of one depraved individual should not in any way diminish the hard work of the broader team and their commitment to the security of the United States of America,” the defense software startup said in a release late Wednesday.
The company said the 57-year-old had no access to classified information since stepping down as CEO nearly ten years ago.
On Monday, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office charged Gillespie with four felonies, including multiple counts of unlawful contact with a preteen.
A judge denied bail for Gillespie, who lived in Pittsburgh, citing flight risk and public safety concerns.
At the time, the Pentagon officials told CNBC that they were investigating the arrest and possible security risks.
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Last month, the Arlington, Virginia-based startup surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue and announced a $150 million growth investment from Bain Capital.
