While not a completely new model, the eSprinter has a greater range than its predecessor, offering traders in Europe an electric version with better possible uses.

However, the next big step for Mercedes is the platform change called Van.ea, scheduled for 2025, which will provide the company with a home for the V-Class and Vito.

Van.EA is purely electric and will host not only the large Sprinter models but also the so-called mid-size vans, making better use of economies of scale and significantly reducing complexity.

The electric version of the Sprinter will be manufactured in Jawor, Poland, and will be the first plant to produce electric vans alone.

Mercedes has also presented the near-series study of the Sustaineer, which is an electric van that provides several thousand additional kilometers per year with flat solar modules on the roof.

This electric van also features gray cast iron brake discs with a ceramic coating, tires with optimized rolling resistance, cameras around the vehicle for a larger field of vision and a lower risk of accidents, missing exterior mirrors that reduce air resistance and a screen that replaces the classic interior mirror.

The prototypes should make it into the production version, which will roll onto the international markets from 2025.

The changeover to the new electric platform will take place from 2025, with the open body versions as platform trucks or as a platform for body manufacturers coming from the plant in Düsseldorf.

The open model of the eSprinter will also be manufactured here from spring 2024.

Ludwigsfelde will be qualified as a competence center for special customization of the electric vans medium-sized vans, which will be the first to switch to the new Van.EA platform, while the large vans in the form of closed panel vans on the new electric platform will roll off the assembly line in Jawor, Poland.

Models like the successor to the Mercedes EQV, which is currently only available as an electric front-wheel drive vehicle, will come from Vitoria, Spain, from 2025.

Mercedes is under pressure to put its large vans on the much more flexible electric platform as its competitors, Stellantis and Ford, are stepping on the gas with new models and corresponding electric platforms.

The upcoming electric sprinters will also be on the new platform Van.EA from the end of 2025 / beginning of 2026, initially from Jawor and Düsseldorf, and later from Charleston.

Meanwhile, the newly introduced combustion Sprinter will likely be available during the transitional period, playing a significant market-specific role in many regions and with many customer requirements.