Smaller than the eSprinter and built on Mercedes’s VAN.EA platform, the first prototypes are being tested on public roads now.
If you’re in the market for an electric delivery van, Mercedes-Benz already has you covered with its eSprinter. Available in two sizes with up to 252 miles of range, it’s just the thing for shuttling around urban environments. However, Mercedes has much bigger plans for its electric van lineup, and that plan has just entered the testing stage.
Already, public road tests have started of the flexible architecture that Mercedes indicates is going to underpin all of its van development starting in 2026. Heavily disguised, the new van looks like, well, a van. It’s a box you put other boxes in. From a functional standpoint, there are two sliding rear doors and a large rear hatch.
What’s far more interesting is what’s going on underneath. Mercedes’s new modular electric architecture—which, for this use, it has dubbed Van.EA—uses three modules to create a sort of Lego-like structure that can be built into both commercial and private vans. The front section is standardized with an EV powertrain. The middle bit dictates how long the cargo space is and how tall the roof will be, with standardized battery pack sizes. Out back, the rear module comes with a motor for all-wheel-drive variants, or without for front-wheel-drive applications.
Smaller Than the eSprinter
While there are no details as yet on the van that Mercedes engineers are currently testing on public roads, it’s clearly much smaller than the eSprinter. Mercedes has previously said that this new electric architecture will result in both commercial applications and a luxury-oriented van bound for the U.S. market. The latter won’t be called the Metris, but it will fill the gap created when that model exited the market at the end of the 2023 model year.
Perhaps most exciting, Mercedes has both full and mid-size camper-van variants listed in its plans. Converted Sprinters have long been showing up on Instagram posts with the #vanlife hashtag, and while an EV version won’t get you quite as far into the back country, it will let you set up a comfortable home base with plenty of onboard power for amenities. Say, down by the river.
Mercedes Targets 50% of Its Vans Electric by 2030
Mercedes wants 20 percent of its van fleet to be EV by 2026, with half of all van sales electric by 2030. Along with the obvious commercial applications, the luxury mid-size van that will come out of this new platform will be great to ride in. Luxury vans are more common in the China market, but all that space is pretty hard to beat for ferrying VIPs around. Livery companies are likely to snap them up.
Mercedes hasn’t yet let any specifications for the new architecture leak out, just these photos. Dare we dream of an AMG version with bits of the EQS53 tucked underneath? Much missed German racing driver Sabine Schmitz would certainly approve.
