Mercedes, the first electric Vito is 25 years old
Electric motors in the world of transportation are not as recent a novelty as one might think: even if they literally exploded only in the last few years, manufacturers have been working on it for several years. about 30 per case Mercedes-Benz, which introduced the progenitor of the modern eVito 25 years ago, in 1996.
In the same year, the company released the first generation Vito (W638), which replaced the famous MB15 series after 100 years of career. A few months later, within the area appeared option 108 Ebuilt in a small series of box body and passenger transport units at a plant in Mannheim, Germany, and the base model was manufactured in Vitoria, Spain.
Zebra under the hood
The Vito 108E was equipped with the same transmission that had been used two years earlier on the C-class prototype and consisted of water-cooled three-phase asynchronous motor driven ZEBRA battery, Abbreviated Zero Emission Battery Research, che sfruttava sodium-nickel-chloride technology, weighed about 420 kg and was installed in the rear.
The engine had power 40 kW, 54 hp, and a torque of 190 Nm from 0 to 2.000 rpm. The battery, generating a nominal voltage of 280 V, had a capacity of 35,6 kWh and could be charged up to 50% in half an hour thanks to the fast on-board system and allowed the vehicle to reach speeds of up to 120 km / h and travel about 170 km (including braking energy recovery) with recharging while maintaining the carrying capacity of 600 kg or 8 passengers.
Expensive, but promising
Production took place in Mannheim because it was home to the Center for Emissions-Free Mobility Competence, a research center that experimented with alternative propulsion systems on various production vehicles. The technology, which at that time was almost innovative, did not allow the commercialization of a model that would have even triple price compared to the models in the price list of similar performance.
For this reason, several built units were handed over for use. partner companies for hands-on experiments with the potential of electric mobility. Among them is Deutsche Post, which used 5 Vito 108 E for daily delivery in Bremen.
Route for today
The experiment continued with the second generation Vito (W639) launched in 2003 and perfected the technology, allowing Mercedes Benz to have not one, but good 4 modelsincluding eVito and eVito Tourer for passenger transport, eSprinter and EQV.
