International van of the year report 2023 George Barrow
The only way is upmarket for the new Mercedes-Benz Vito line-up
to making this automotive giant carbon neutral – not least with sustainability improvements to its production methods and materials – but ICE models will still run concurrently with the future generations of zero-emission vehicles. Barring any momentous
breakthroughs ahead of the launch of VAN.EA models, commercial vehicles will still require a driver and loadspace. The fundamentals of current and new models will therefore remain similar, if not the same. “What has made us successful in the past is not necessarily what will make us successful in the future. I don’t think that the formula for success today necessarily carries you to the same level of success tomorrow. You also have to compromise on certain things that you’re not going to have in tomorrow’s world. You’re going to have
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some additional features that you don’t have today. I think the future electric product, when you look at 10 features, maybe eight features, are the same. “But there’s probably two or three additional features that you’re going to have on top, like an electric power take- off, low voltage and high voltage, electric power take-off, so your craftsmen carry 50 tools and just work offl ine,” he adds. Details of what the VAN.EA models will look like are unclear but Mercedes talks about their future electric product in the context of both medium and large vans. It is also being billed as a van for multiple markets – that’s despite the updated eSprinter coming next year, getting a big push in the US and Canada, a market the Vito (renamed the Metris) is leaving. Rehkugler explains that the future of the Vito in North
America isn’t confi rmed, but that VAN. EA will go some ways to fi lling the gap left by the Metris. That could mean a product that sits slightly below the Vito in size but straddles the same footprint – similar to the VW ID Buzz that gets fi ve-seat and seven-seat variants as well as a panel van. Whatever direction VAN. EA takes the mid-sized Mercedes van range in, Rehkugler is confi dent both ICE and EV will co-exist together for a while and that customers will adapt to their current electric vehicle price sensitivity. “I’m a strong believer that a three-year residual of a purpose-built electric vehicle will be the same as a three-year residual on an ICE vehicle,” he says.
Electric vans won’t necessarily have such a premium purchase price in the future, but diesel models becoming
more expensive is likely. “My hypothesis is that CO2 driving will just become more expensive over time and that’s going to determine the attractiveness of electric,” Rehkugler contends. Whether it’s through an increase in list price – driven by the R&D costs of further emission regulations becoming tighter – or greater taxation through VEDs or fuel duty, price parity between ICE and EV will eventually align, not necessarily as an up front price, but across the life of the vehicle in shorter time frames than we currently see. The Vito, eVito and V-Class may well be the swansong of the current Mercedes mid-size platform, but their increasing premium aspirations are perhaps a sign of things to come in the pure zero- emission market of future Mercedes- Benz vans.
August 2023 WhatVan? 15
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