Mercedes unveils plug-in electric van

Auto giant Mercedes-Benz this week debuted a battery-powered version of its popular Vito commercial van, promising that its latest electric vehicle will have an average range of more than 130km and a top speed of 80km/h.

The van was unveiled at a meeting of the EU Competitiveness Council in Spain, where it was also announced that the German government is to provide funding towards a major trial of the new technology.

Mercedes-Benz said that as part of the trial it plans to provide more than 100 electric vans to 20 customers, including fleet operators and public sector bodies.

A spokesman for the company in the UK told BusinessGreen.com that the firm hoped to begin trialling the vehicle in the UK by the autumn. "We've had considerable interest from corporate customers who want to get involved in a trial," he said, adding that the vehicle was on track for a commercial launch before 2012.

Mercedes-Benz said it was planning to deliver 2,000 models during the first phase of production. It added that the Lithium-ion battery would power an electric motor with a peak output of 90kW that would have an average range of 130km between charges.

Mercedes parent company Daimler has made sizable investments in the electric vehicle sector and it is currently trialling an electric version of its Smart city car and an electric version of the Vito designed for use as a taxi.

The Mercedes spokesman said that the commercial van market was a natural fit for electric vehicles. "We are seeing the commercial van market approaching a bit of a crossroads with electric vehicles," he said. "They are increasingly viable for relatively short delivery routes around a city such as London and what we might see is firms operating a mixed fleet where they have diesel vehicles for longer journeys and electric vehicles for planned shorter trips."