{"id":1496,"date":"2010-08-02T10:37:20","date_gmt":"2010-08-02T10:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/?p=1496"},"modified":"2018-03-07T11:31:40","modified_gmt":"2018-03-07T11:31:40","slug":"mercedes-benz-launches-vito-e-cell-electric-van","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/1496","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes-Benz Launches Vito E-CELL Electric Van"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mercedes-Benz has just launched the Vito E-CELL, an all-electric version of the popular Vito van. The company says that the E-Cell is the first electric van to be produced on a manufacturer&#8217;s standard production lines &#8211; the Vito E-CELL will be made in Merc&#8217;s Vitoria factory, in northern Spain.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1498\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1498\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1498\" title=\"mercedes-vito-ecell-1-sm\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/mercedes-vito-ecell-1-sm.jpg\" alt=\"Mercedes-Benz Vito E-CELL electric van\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/mercedes-vito-ecell-1-sm.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/mercedes-vito-ecell-1-sm-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1498\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The electric Vito will only be available in LWB format due to the space required for the batteries<\/p><\/div>\n<p>One hundred Vito E-CELLs are planned for this year, which will go to pre-arranged fleet trials in Berlin and Stuttgart. However, proper series production is planned from 2011, when Mercedes aims to produce 2,000 electric Vitos.<\/p>\n<p>The van itself is based on the long-wheelbase Vito and has a gross weight of 3,050kg and a payload of around 900kg. Unlike other Vitos, it is front-wheel drive. The reason for this is simple &#8211; the space under the van floor that&#8217;s usually occupied by the propshaft and fuel tank is taken up with batteries, so front-wheel drive makes sense. It also saves weight, improving payload and reducing power consumption. Maximum torque is a healthy 280Nm &#8211; pretty similar to an equivalent diesel engine and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/archives\/1036\" target=\"_self\">possibly even more impressive to drive<\/a>, thanks to the instant availability of maximum torque that is a characteristic of electric motors.<\/p>\n<p>Maximum range is said to be 130km and charging takes up to six hours with a special three-phase charging station or up to 12 hours from a standard 230V mains socket. The van is (obviously) designed for urban or short range use and its top speed will be limited to 80km\/h to preserve battery life.<\/p>\n<p>There don&#8217;t seem to be any details on price yet, but you can check out the van in action in the video below:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/X7kWwhQizGM?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The new Mercedes Vito E-cell electric van will be the first to be produced on a manufacturer&#8217;s standard production lines and will be available to general buyers from 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[139],"tags":[858,249,857,156,879,880,855,856],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1496"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10952,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1496\/revisions\/10952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vanrental.co.uk\/vanblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}