2025 Mercedes-Benz eSprinter First Drive: Run Silent, Run … Slow?
If your delivery packages are late, Mercedes’ electric van might be to blame.
For most gearheads, driving on Germany’s autobahn is a dream—but driving it in the 134-hp version of the 2025 Mercedes-Benz eSprinter electric van is the kind of dream where everything happens in slow motion. Mercedes invited us to Frankfurt to drive the updated-for-2025 eSprinter, which is intended primarily as a cargo delivery vehicle. It’s been a while since we’ve had to express the following sentiment, but here we go: While the eSprinter van is no doubt adequate for Europe, it’s likely too slow for American tastes.
A Smaller eSprinter (Or So We Hear)
Before we expand and explain, you might have spotted the fact we published a first drive of the eSprinter only a few weeks before this one. Well, junior detectives, that was the 2024 model, and this is the 2025 version, which goes on sale mid-2024 with an expanded lineup. While Mercedes launched the ’24 eSprinter exclusively in super-jumbo-economy size, with a 170-inch wheelbase and high roof, for ’25 there’s a 144-inch short-wheelbase version available in standard- or high-roof guise. Oddly enough, Mercedes only had the big vans at the press preview, so that’s the one we drove and the one you see in the photos.
The 113-kWh battery fitted to the big 2025 Mercedes-Benz eSprinter won’t fit the smaller van, so it gets an 81-kWh battery instead. Here’s the story twist: You can also get the small battery in the long-wheelbase eSprinter. Why would anyone want an EV with a smaller battery? Because the lighter battery increases the long-wheelbase van’s payload by nearly 500 pounds. Both batteries can fast-charge at 50 kW, which, frankly, isn’t very fast. An extra-cost 115-kW fast-charge option makes marginal improvements: 10 to 80 percent in 32 minutes for the 81-kWh battery and 42 minutes for the 113-kWh version. That’s not very quick, which, as we will soon discuss, suits the eSprinter’s personality quite well.
How Far Will It Go? We Still Don’t Know.
What, exactly, is the range? Mercedes didn’t have EPA estimates at the time of our drive, only wildly optimistic WLTP test numbers, but we’ll take a wild guess that range for the various battery and van-size combinations should be somewhere between 150 and 250 miles. A short-ish tether, to be sure, but Mercedes was quick to remind us 150 miles is sufficient for the average commercial delivery van.
The powertrain remains unchanged for 2025: A single permanent-magnet synchronous motor drives the rear wheels, which are mounted to a leaf-sprung DeDion axle. Power output is either 100 kW (134 hp) or 150 kW (201 hp) depending on how the van is optioned; either way, torque output is 295 lb-ft. For comparison, Ford’s electric E-Transit offers 266 hp and 317 lb-ft. We haven’t driven one of those yet, but we have driven the Brightdrop Zevo, and it feels a lot sprier. Which brings us quite neatly back to our autobahn drive in the big-body, small-battery, 134-hp van.
Around town, this lesser motor is adequate; in fact, the accelerator response feels much like the diesel Sprinter, which we can say authoritatively as we followed our eSprinter drive with a similarly sized diesel variant. Both vans give a decent shove when you get the pedal about halfway down. The difference is that if you floor the diesel Sprinter, it downshifts and gives you a burst of power. Floor the eSprinter and it gives you … nothing extra.
Fast Traffic in a Slow Van
Keeping up with city traffic wasn’t too much of a problem, but getting onto the autobahn was a white-knuckle experience. Mind you, we weren’t trying to slot in among large Audi bombers flying up our six at jet-fighter speeds. We were merely trying to merge with semi trucks rumbling along at a steady 50 mph or so, which was a struggle. It reminded us of driving EVs from the late 1990s, which had their power curtailed to maximize what little range the batteries could deliver.
Once we were settled behind the trucks, getting past them was its own adventure. The 2025 Mercedes eSprinter’s lack of top-end acceleration meant we had to wait for a big gap, and our efforts were complicated by our Euro-spec van’s 99-kph limiter—or just more than 60 mph. U.S.-spec vans will do a more useful 75 mph, but we can’t imagine high-speed acceleration will be any better. Is the 201-hp motor the fix for this problem? Not really—the ’24 eSprinters we drove had that motor, and although high-speed acceleration is slightly better, it’s not nearly as quick as most electric cars and pickups.
Amazingly, the eSprinter gives you the capacity to go even slower. Its three driving modes—Comfort, Eco, and Maximum Range (there’s no Sport mode; even the Germans couldn’t pull that off with a straight face) incrementally lower the motor’s power output, though we achieved the same terminal velocity in both Comfort and Eco. (We were reluctant to try Max Range on the autobahn.) Among other things, Max Range cuts comfort accessories to squeeze as much juice as possible from the batteries. A gauge on the dash shows maximum available power output from the battery, something we can’t recall seeing in other EVs; one of the engineers told us this gauge drops when the battery is close to depleted. They must expect those delivery drivers to really push the limits.
Enjoying the Silence
As we pointed out in our 2024 eSprinter review, there is a significant upside to the electric powertrain: It means you drive in utter serenity. There’s no whine from the gears or hum from the electronics, let alone rumbling from a diesel engine. But for the whooshing of the wind against the Sprinter’s huge windshield and massive side mirrors, you could be driving one of Mercedes’ luxury cars. As mentioned earlier, we drove the eSprinter back to back with an internal combustion Sprinter, and while its engine is refined for a four-cylinder diesel, the electric Sprinter makes it feel like an unevenly loaded washing machine on crazy-fast spin cycle.
One nice touch—a carryover from the 2024 van—is the “auto” setting for the regenerative brake. With a route programmed into the navigation system, the van’s regen adjusted to the terrain. On a long straightaway, it coasted when we lifted off the accelerator, but as we headed into a traffic circle, it applied more regen. We also tried max-regen mode, which made for a nice one-pedal driving experience, except the regen trails off at very low speeds, and you still must step on the brake to bring the van to a halt.
Other new-for-2025 improvements for both the diesel-powered Sprinter and the battery-powered eSprinter include an optional larger center screen and a host of new and improved safety and driver assistance systems, among them a 360-degree parking camera that makes docking this freighter a cinch. They enhance what is already an unexpectedly pleasant driving experience: Both the Sprinter and the eSprinter offer a surprisingly comfortable ride, sharp and accurate steering, and a tight turning radius. The silence of the eSpritner’s electric drivetrain only enhances the experience.
To Fulfil Its Potential, the eSprinter Needs More Speed
Speed is still the issue, though. We know from our experience testing battery-powered trucks like the Ford F-150 Lightning and Rivian R1T that electric motors shrug off heavy loads, but it’s not like loading 3,000 pounds of cargo is going to make the eSprinter faster. The eSprinter’s batteries were designed to preserve the van’s massive cargo capacity, but we imagine most operators would give up a little cargo volume for more range and speed. And a bigger battery could make it so much more than a delivery van: A dual-motor, all-wheel-drive eSprinter with 300 miles of range (and while we’re dreaming, 300-kW fast charging) would make one heck of a great overland RV, don’t you think?
Alas, the 2025 Mercedes-Benz eSprinter remains tightly focused on the delivery market; note it’s available only as a cargo van, whereas the diesel Sprinter is also available in passenger, crew, and chassis-cab configurations. Fleet managers will like the economics—for a busy operation, the $10,350 price premium over the diesel Sprinter will be eradicated quickly by fuel and maintenance savings—but drivers who must contend with fast-moving inter-city freeway traffic might disagree. To succeed in the U.S., the eSprinter is going to need a little more power.
After a two-decade career as a freelance writer, Aaron Gold joined MotorTrend’s sister publication Automobile in 2018 before moving to the MT staff in 2021. Aaron is a native New Yorker who now lives in Los Angeles with his spouse, too many pets, and a cantankerous 1983 GMC Suburban.
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