There’s been a lot of excitement around Mercedes recently launched EV Sprinter Van in Europe, but Mercedes has decided that it is too shitty to launch in the United States for now.
Mercedes has decided not to offer the eSprinter in the U.S. because safety specifications and other performance requirements cannot be sufficiently met.
Automotive News
So it’s safe enough for Europe, but not the United States?
“The components for the electric drive system do not meet Daimler’s internal standards for crash tests that go beyond legal requirements,” a source told Germany’s Automobilwoche, a sibling publication of Automotive News.
The cost of adapting the van for America would be so expensive that Daimler is initially foregoing it.
Automotive News
That’s really the reason? No way.
The U.S. has different requirements for a large electric van, notably range and battery size.
Even with a bigger battery, the eSprinter only has a range of 170 kilometers — or 106 miles — often sufficient for a day trip in a European city.
Automotive News
Ah, there you go! There’s the real reason. At 106 miles of range, there’s no market for this vehicle in the United States.
However, driving distances in some U.S. urban areas are much longer.
“As communicated in the context of the market launch of the eSprinter 2019, we have initially focused on the European region when developing the vehicle.
“Accordingly, the performance requirements of the vehicle are tailored to the needs of customers in Europe,” a Mercedes spokesperson said.
Daimler also emphasized that “differing safety requirements were not decisive for the strategy of initially focusing on Europe.“
Automotive News
Translation: We do not have the technology to make a product that would sell in the United States, so we didn’t even try.
What the hell is legacy auto going to do?