Mercedes-Benz has revealed its first new product on its eagerly anticipated VAN.EA platform. VAN.EA will form the basis of the future medium electric vans and the next generation eSprinter, but Mercedes has opted to launch its passenger Mercedes-Benz VLE model first.
Mercedes, however, doesn’t want you to think of the new VLE as a van. It certainly doesn’t want you to think of it as an electrified Vito.
This, it insists, is a “grand limousine”, a limo with sliding doors, up to eight seats and enough loadspace to swallow at least the contents of a Euro pallet, it not actually on a pallet itself. But that’s besides the point. This isn’t a van… yet.
The VLE is every inch the limousine it sets out to be, with plenty of rear space for its occupants and a dazzling array of tech to make an oligarch ooze - or at least enough to impress celebrity guests Roger Federer and Rita Ora.
Yet beneath the elegant appearance this upmarket MPV is the future of Mercedes’ commercial vehicle range. Built on a dedicated electric architecture with a software-led platform designed to be the foundations of all of the future Mercedes vans.
Sort of, but also not really. It's the first model to sit on Mercedes’ new VAN architecture, with VAN.EA (electric architecture) and VAN.CA (combustion architecture) being the platforms that will underpin both future passenger cars and commercial vans. Diesel, petrol and electri
But unlike today’s V-Class, which chief engineer Benjamin Kaehler describes as “basically a nicely done Vito”, the VLE has been developed on a parallel track from the outset.
While underneath it uses the multi-use platform, the body and interior is more upmarket than you could ever imagine the van version to be.
The VLE and the subsequent VLS have been designed to push the Mercedes brand even further into premium territory. In doing so, it will no doubt become very obvious that although the underpinnings are shared, everything you see and touch will be radically different.
The vans will come in medium and large, but the cars will come in grand and grander, with the VLE at first, quickly followed by a VLS.
For the latter we’re imaging a cross between a Maybach and the underachieving EQS, but on this we could be wrong.
One thing that is certain, however, is that VLE is the beginning of a redefinition of
Mercedes passenger van offer.
“With this approach here with the VLE and the VLS we did this totally differently,” Kaehler explains.
“They only share the skateboard components… the passenger car version and the later coming commercial vans. But everything that you touch, everything that you look at; the interior, the exterior, the body-in-white, all the design elements, they will be completely separate.
Everything that is visible will be differentiated. And luckily almost everything that’s invisible is really valuable in terms of economies of scale.”
In other words, the expensive bits (for Mercedes to produce) underneath are shared and the visible bits, which are more easily customised, are not.
This will give MB cars the chance to transform a once humble van into something far more upmarket, and truly differentiate its passenger cars not only from their Mercedes-Benz Vans origins but also from its existing models.
“The battery, the drivetrain, the chassis, the axles, many of the electronics – MB.OS and
things like that – all of these components will be identical,” Kaehler continues.
The first model to launch will be the VLE 300 electric, with a 200kW rear-mounted motor and a claimed WLTP range of more than 700km. It will be followed by a dual-motor VLE 400 4MATIC with 305kW that can also decouple the rear axle motor when it’s not required to save energy. Mercedes says it will have an electricity consumption rate of 20kWh/100km. Not bad for a medium van, or large MPV.
Under the floor sits a 115kWh NMC battery, running on an 800V architecture. Mercedes claims that, under ideal conditions with a high-power DC supply, the VLE can add up to 320km (199 miles) of WLTP range in just 15 minutes.
It being a grand limousine, refinement is the name of the game for the VLE, so there’s also optional Airmatic air suspension, which can alter the ride height by up to 40mm. It also uses map data to stay in its lowest, most aerodynamically efficient setting when on motorways. Mercedes has already teased the arrival of the new model by revealed that the VLE would get rear-axle steering, with up to seven degrees of angle.
This will not only reduce the turning circle to 10.9 metres curb-to-curb, but increase the ease of parking and therefore no doubt add to the overall effortless chauffeur experience which many customers or passengers would expect.
With its rear steering, the VLE also gets an entirely new and unique axle, which Kaehler says is unlikely to feature on the commercial vehicle variant.
“For the rear axle we have developed a complete new axle design which is extra smooth, super quiet,” says Kaehler.
The body-in-white has additional baffles and noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) measures, designed to benefit both electric and future combustion versions.
“We’re not going to make it worse,” he says of the commercial derivatives. “I think the commercial customers will benefit from the VLE hitting the market first and kind of laying the foundation.”
“The passenger version has the highest need,” Kaehler explains, citing recent updates to the eVito as a reason for the later timeline for a new medium van replacement. "Something has to be first,” he adds.
The new VLE will launch with standard, AMG Line, AMG Line Plus and Exclusive trim levels. The Mercedes VLE price is expected to be similar to that of the current Mercedes EQV with prices starting at around £90,000, rising to more than £100,000 for top-spec Executive trim models.
