Technology: Van.ea platform starts in 2025
The electric sprinter of the future
Mercedes Van.ea 2025
© press-inform – the press office
From the middle of the year, Mercedes will be launching its new eSprinter – first in the USA and then in Europe. This is not completely new, but rather a thorough revision of the current model. The big step into a completely electric future will follow from 2025 with a platform change called Van.ea, which also offers a home for the V-Class and Vito.
From the end of the year, the new Mercedes Sprinter will not only come from Germany, but from the middle of 2023 from the Charleston / South Carolina plant. This should please customers in the North American market in particular, who previously only received the coveted Sprinter models as transporters and, in particular, as a basis for camping conversions in dribs and drabs and had to put up with long waiting times. With the new generation of the eSprinter, traders in Europe finally have the electric version they were hoping for, with a significantly greater range and therefore better possible uses.
The electric sprinter of the future
But Mercedes makes no secret of the fact that the next big step is already in 2025. Although the old Sprinter platform for the models with combustion engines will continue to be built for a few more years, the real models of the future will then be fully electric on the new Van.EA platform in accordance with the officially proclaimed star strategy. The big difference to the current models: Van.EA is purely electric and will not only be home to the large Sprinter models, but also to the so-called mid-size vans. This should make better use of economies of scale and significantly reduce the complexity caused by the lack of legacy combustion engines, which lowers production costs and should compensate for the lower yield from the large battery packs.
The large vans in the form of closed panel vans on the new electric platform will roll off the assembly line in Jawor, Poland, from the middle of the decade. This will make Jawor the first plant to manufacture electric vans alone. “Our aim is to offer the most desirable vans and services – for this we have to be highly innovative and competitive in all areas. A key success factor for this is the realignment of our European production network,” says Mathias Geisen, Head of Mercedes Vans. “The decision to go to the new location in Jawor, Poland, is another milestone on the road to electromobility. We are not only preparing our products for the future, but the entire value chain from purchasing to production and logistics to sales. That is why we are investing in VAN.EA, our new all-electric van architecture.”
What the upcoming Mercedes eSprinter can do, not least because of its new EA platform, is shown not least by the near-series study of the Sustaineer, which was presented for the first time in 2021. Its gray cast iron brake discs with a ceramic coating and tires with optimized rolling resistance ensure that less fine dust is produced than usual. Flat solar modules on the roof provide energy for several thousand additional kilometers per year. Cameras all around should ensure a larger field of vision and a lower risk of accidents. The missing exterior mirrors reduce drag and provide a rear view of cockpit screens. A screen also replaces the classic interior mirror – which is of little use in a closed van anyway. Cameras also show the space around the sensor-controlled loading doors (delivery door). The driver has also been thought of, who otherwise hardly ever gets warm in the driver’s compartment in winter due to the constant getting in and out. Both the steering wheel and the seat belts can be heated. If desired, the air conditioning does not heat the entire cockpit, but only the area around the driver. Some of the prototypes should make it into the production versions, which will roll onto international markets from 2025.
While only combustion engines and batteries have been manufactured in Jawor, Poland, the switch to the new Elektroplatt will come from 2025. The open body versions as platform trucks or as a platform for body manufacturers, on the other hand, come from the well-known plant in Düsseldorf. The open model of the Sprinter has been built at the Ludwigsfelde plant since 2018. From spring 2024 there will be a switch to the new eSprinter with an open model. In addition, Ludwigsfelde was qualified as a competence center for special customization of electric vans. The medium-sized vans, which will be the first to switch to the new Van.EA platform for positioning reasons and the tough competitive environment, would then come from Vitoria, Spain, from 2025. That would be models like the successor to the Mercedes EQV, which is currently only available as an electric front-wheel drive. After the EQ designations at Mercedes will gradually disappear again from 2024/2025, the new family van should then again bear the sole designation V-Class. In addition to the EQV, the Vito, eVito, V-Class and Vito Tourer are currently being manufactured in Spain.
Since the competitors Stellantis and Ford in particular are stepping on the gas with new models and corresponding electric platforms, the pressure to put the large vans on the much more flexible electric platform is not much less. Therefore, the upcoming electric sprinters should also be on the new platform Van.EA from the end of 2025 / beginning of 2026 and initially from Jawor and Düsseldorf; later also come from Charleston. At the same time, in a transitional period, there will probably still be the newly introduced combustion Sprinter, which with its diesel engines will play a significant market-specific role in many regions and with many customer requirements at least until the beginning of the next decade.