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Mercedes to start fleet trials of electric Vito
29.07.2010 |
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Mercedes-Benz has started production of a small series of 100 Vito E-CELL vans with a further 2,000 units planned from 2011.
The initial fleet of 100 electric vans are to go on the road with organisations in Berlin and Stuttgart with Mercedes claiming that the Vito E-CELL is considerably less expensive to operate when compared with a diesel van. A comparison between the current diesel price and the cost of electrical power shows a factor of four to seven, says the German company.
This means that for the same driving distance, a Vito powered by an internal combustion engine incurs four to seven times the costs of a Vito E-CELL recharged overnight with low-priced off-peak power.
With its operating range of around 130 km, the Vito E-CELL meets average customer requirements for a daily van mileage of approx. 50-80 km.
At the same time the van’s load compartment is usable with no restrictions. With a payload of around 900 kg depending on equipment specifications, the Vito E-CELL is a fully-fledged van. It has a top speed of 80 km/h.
In place of the usual four and six-cylinder engines plus peripheral units of the Vito, the engine cover of the Vito E-CELL conceals the electric motor and its ancillary systems. The electric motor, a permanent synchronous unit, develops a continuous output of 60 kW and a peak output of 70 kW. Maximum torque is 280 Nm. Power is transferred to the front wheels via a single-speed transmission.
The vehicle’s batteries are lithium-ion units, which take about six hours to charge.
The Vito E-CELL is based on the long-wheelbase Mercedes-Benz Vito with a standard roof. It is available with both left and right-hand drive.
Standard equipment of the Vito E-CELL includes a two-seater bench for the co-driver, two sliding doors and a tailgate.
Customer trials for the Vito E-CELL are scheduled for four years and roughly 80,000 km per vehicle, after which the 100 vans will be returned to Mercedes-Benz. For this reason customers are not purchasing their vehicles, but rather renting and financing them by paying a monthly user charge which also includes all the servicing.
Ideally, says Mercedes, the 100 Vito E-CELL vans will cover a total of around eight million kilometres in roughly one dozen fleets during the customer trials which will provide an unrivalled wealth of experience for the further development of electric drive systems in light commercial vehicles.
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