In the world of vans, the Sprinter sets itself apart as the more luxurious van option. Since its inception in 1995, the Mercedes Sprinter Van has gone through three different generations. In 2019, it was fitted with an electric motor and called the eSprinter. For a while now, the Sprinter and its electric variant have been the go-to for ride shuttles. Some of these Sprinters have been modified with armouring and luxury details that make them fit for celebrity shuttling. However, Mercedes is developing a new generation of electric vans that will not need aftermarket modification. I guess we can say that the success of the Sprinter paved the way for the new van.
The German automaker recently released a teaser photo of the new van, which is expected to be more upscale than the Sprinter. Unlike the eSprinter, this new electric van is going to be manufactured from scratch as fully electric, and not merely the conversion of a pre-existing combustion engine vehicle. The world is going electric and it makes sense for Mercedes to develop an electric shuttle from scratch. It won’t come as a surprise when AI is integrated into it to make it self-driving, as that seems to be the new trend.
What does Mercedes have in store for us?
The new Mercedes van will be based on the Van Electric Architecture or VAN.EA. It will apparently allow for a “clear differentiation between privately positioned vans in the luxury segment and commercial vans”. One of the goals of VAN.EA is to create a clear distinction between luxury and commercial applications of their vans. In plain English, this means that Mercedes plans to make the vans in such a way that there will be variations, ranging from purely utility vans to extra-luxurious ones.
Since the inception of the Sprinter and Metris vans, it has been a one size fits all situation. By this, I mean that there are no premium or limited variants of these vans. A base model is mass produced and buyers decide what they want to do with these vans. It then falls on aftermarket tuners to customize these vans to become luxurious for purposes like celebrity shuttling. These aftermarket tuners have been making a lot of money modifying Mercedes vans and Mercedes must have noticed. This may have prompted the creation of VAN.EA, enabling Mercedes to modify their own vehicles in-house from the factory. By doing so, Mercedes will no longer carry their business ‘outside’ and will make more money, as these ultra-luxury vans would be pricey.
