2024 Mercedes eSprinter
Price: $104,000 CAD
Colour: White
The 2024 Mercedes eSprinter is an interesting experiment. It’s a Battery Electric Vehicle that looks exactly like its internal combustion siblings and is intended for the same purposes but only uses kilowatts. It’s long been the debate around EV’s as to whether or not they can work as commercial vehicles. Most of this conversation is tied to range. It’s a real concern when you earn your living with your vehicle.
The 2024 eSprinter has a 109 kw/h battery. It’s a big battery and gives the vehicle a decent amount of range. This is good. A bit of an issue however was effectively charging it. If you have a level 2 charger at your shop you can fully charge the battery in about 12 hours. Depending on your situation this might work. If you run out of kw’s in the middle of the day however, you’re going to struggle to commercially charge that battery in anything approaching a reasonable timeframe. You don’t always have an hour or more to pull into a fast charger and top off the cells, assuming you can find a fast charger in the first place. Obviously, you don’t need to charge the battery fully every time you need juice, but if a charger isn’t easily at hand, you might not have much choice.
Another factor affecting EV’s in particular is weight. All vehicles see their economy affected by how much they’re carrying. I didn’t get the chance to load up the eSprinter with a load of lumber an haul it across town but I can only imagine how that would diminish the range. This only serves to exacerbate the issues with how you charge and how often you can get it done. Add to this vehicles like Sprinter vans often have huge ladder rack assemblies with large and heavy ladders plus all the other equipment you have to have in your van to do your work it means you really have to think and consider hard about whether or not an eSprinter will work for you.
I like driving. I always have and until the government strips me of my right to do so, I’ll always be keen to hit the open road. A comfortable vehicle is key to an enjoyable experience. The eSprinter is a very comfortable thing to sit in all day. If you were slinging packages for the almighty Amazon you could get some real work done in the eSprinter. Visibility out the back is a joke of course but that’s what cameras are for. Turning radius is good for a vehicle with a wheelbase like this one and it feels remarkably nimble given its height.
To the everyday business owner, paying for fuel is second only to your workforce as the most loathed of your operating expenses. Until AI replaces your workers and something improves on the EV infrastructure arena however, good old fashioned ICE vans would seem to remain as your best bet on the contractor van side of things.
