Customers place the same demands on electric vans as they do on equivalent vehicles with combustion engines. One of the most important factors here: complete reliability – even in severe conditions. The winter endurance tests on the Mercedes-Benz eSprinter focussed precisely on this. For several weeks the development team subjected the fully-electric van to a true endurance test in Sweden’s Arjeplog. At temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees with icy roads and deep snow, the eSprinter proved its operability under extreme conditions. Thus the vehicle completed one of its last milestones on the way to its market launch in the second half of 2019.
The vehicles were put through numerous complex tests on the difficult test site close to the Arctic Circle. Testing included driving on a frozen lake to examine the effects of extreme cold on handling, ergonomics and comfort using special measuring technology. The starting behaviour and low-temperature resistance of the drive components, software and interfaces were tested in cold cell facilities.
How the vehicles respond to different weather conditions is critical to the electric vans functioning in tough daily operations, for example in the CEP sector (courier, express, package). With a range of around 1501 kilometres when configured with a battery capacity of 55 kWh, the eSprinter is perfectly designed for inner-city short-radius distribution. The tests in Sweden have shown: even in the unfavourable conditions described here, a range of around 1001 km is still available to the customer.
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SOURCE: Daimler
