Mercedes-Benz on Monday introduced that its upcoming electrical van idea can be known as the Imaginative and prescient V.
We’re nonetheless distant from the debut of this idea, which is anticipated to be revealed later this spring, however Mercedes has already teased that the Imaginative and prescient V will preview its Van.EA modular structure for future electrical vans.
The primary vans based mostly on this structure are scheduled to enter manufacturing in 2026, and Mercedes confirmed final October that prototypes had been out testing. The automaker goals to supply these vans in numerous configurations, together with a U.S.-bound electrical luxurious van and a possible RV, alongside fundamental passenger and cargo vans.
Not like the present Mercedes-Benz eSprinter, which homes an electrical powertrain in a reasonably customary van shell, Van.EA was designed from the begin to accommodate EVs—with excessive ranges of modularity. Mercedes has stated the platform is break up into three major blocks, with entrance and rear blocks that may every home electrical motors for single-motor or dual-motor configurations. Van.EA fashions are anticipated to be front-wheel drive in single-motor type.
Mercedes beforehand indicated that every one of future vans could be based mostly on the Van.EA structure, however final month it reversed course, saying a “second variant of the structure” known as Van.CA for internal-combustion fashions.
Van.CA and Van.EA fashions will share 70% of elements, and can be constructed on the identical meeting traces, Mercedes stated on the time. So whereas the steadiness of energy might have shifted to EVs, with the combustion-engine structure now derived from the electrical structure, as a substitute of the opposite manner round, it seems Mercedes is planning for extra tailpipes than beforehand thought.
