D The Leipzig verdict on driving bans on diesel is postponed to Tuesday. For many small tradespeople and large suppliers, the situation is worrying as long as they still drive a diesel that could be affected by the planned closures. You would be fine with an electric delivery van. Only there was no or almost no. As a result, Swiss Post more or less self-fabricated the all-electric street scooter in the absence of an offer.
But now German competition is on the agenda. Mercedes Benz has electrified the Vito and sends him from the summer for 47,500 euros (including VAT) in the race for customer favor. In addition, the larger Sprinter, whose latest generation recently had its world premiere in Duisburg, also comes as a pure Stromer next year. The E-Vito can be ordered since November, the first customer is logistics company Hermes, which will take off 1500 vehicles (also E-Sprinter). Irrespective of this, the first 1000 customers will receive a wallbox worth around € 1,000 on top.
Fast loading is in preparation
The electric delivery van is loaded on this box in less than six hours, the battery has a volume of 41 kWh. It takes twice as long to charge a conventional socket. The standard range of 150 kilometers is considered sufficient at Mercedes-Benz, above all delivery and distribution services that travel the same routes day in and day out in the city and no longer need a lot of planning. If it does: Fast loading – in 45 minutes – is in preparation.
The cargo space has a volume of up to 6.6 cubic meters in the long variant (5.37 meters), in the short (5.14 meters) it is slightly less. Slightly more than a ton of load may be shouldered, the permissible total weight is 3.2 tons. The load capacity corresponds to 1: 1 diesel variants, as the batteries save space in the vehicle floor sit. The electric motor, which Mercedes-Benz produces as the battery cells itself, produces 84 kW (114 hp) and offers a maximum torque of 300 Newton meters. That’s enough for a top speed of 120 km / h.
As the current version of the Vito has been on the market since 2015, it is only natural that Mercedes-Benz decided on the electric drive only later, and project manager Benjamin Kaehler admits this frankly. Already in 2010 there had been an electric Vito, but of this no more than 1000 units were sold. Since you have stopped this effort again. Now, however, the market is obviously picking up. In order to realize the E-Vito, only the shelf had to be used: The drive is almost the same as it will soon be realized in the highly anticipated passenger car EQ. The batteries, technically equal to three that you have connected together, otherwise provide in plug-in models for silent range.
At the moment, the last winter tests with the E-Vito are being driven in northern Sweden, after all, the new Stromer has to prove itself in really any weather. As even the northern Swedish winters are not what they used to be, and because engineers need constant temperatures for their series of measurements, they put the Vitos, for example, in cold chambers where it is as cold as minus 25 degrees Celsius. After a night in which the outside temperature also falls within this range, the heater must show what it can do. It can do a lot – it gets surprisingly warm in the car, also thanks to the heated seats, but the displayed range is disappointing: only 73 kilometers are on display, despite full charge.