ON TEST: MERCEDES-BENZ eSPRINTER
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eSprinter is the van with extra driver appeal Mercedes-Benz’s load-lugger is the premium urban delivery vehicle but with a price tag north of 50k, does it offer value? Andrew Walker finds out.
We first drove the latest Mercedes-Benz Sprinter back in 2018 and came away mightily impressed. The brand stated then that an electric version would follow and in late 2020 Mercedes-Benz duly delivered, launching the eSprinter. The eSprinter shares its running gear with the smaller eVito electric van, which we drove in 2020, and like its smaller electric brethren, it’s quite a bit more expensive than the diesel variant. Prices start from £51,950 for the eSprinter Progressive L2 H2 FWD, a price that excludes VAT and the OLEV grant. Customers should note that where the diesel range
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features three specs – Pure, Progressive and Premium – eSprinter is only offered in Progressive trim and with one size of battery, the 55kWh. This equates to a range of up to 96 miles. From the outside there’s not a lot to distinguish the eSprinter from any other Sprinter. There’s a lower case blue ‘e’ in front of Sprinter on the rear left door, but that’s about it. Even the recharging port is discrete, hidden underneath the Benz badge located in the centre of the front grille. Look inside and again, it’s almost identical to an auto diesel Sprinter, featuring the same steering wheel stalk gear
lever, an identical dashboard and the same cabin storage. There’s also a top quality finish to the dash and the neat and tidy matt black interior. The main difference is that underneath the Start button is a Drive Mode selector, which allows you to select from three electric driving modes, C, E and E+. C stands for Comfort and is the default mode, delivering the full power and torque of the van; E is for Economy and limits the power and torque; and E+ lowers the power further and also deactivates the climate control. Continued on page 38
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