Mercedes-Benz VAN.EA Prototype Drive: Luxurious? Electric? A... Van?
An MPV that’s nicer than an S-Class limousine? It’ll be on sale here in 2026.
Mercedes-Benz is re-inventing the MPV. The company’s new VAN.EA electric vehicle platform is being developed to not only underpin a new range of load-lugging electric-powered commercial vans but also a new multi-purpose vehicle that will offer its passengers S-Class levels of luxury and refinement. Don’t call it a fancy minivan, though. “It is not a minivan,” insists Andreas Zygan, head of van development at Mercedes-Benz. “What we want to offer is a luxurious large limousine that is an alternative to the big SUV.”
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Mercedes will unveil a stunning MPV concept at the Shanghai Show in April that represents the ultimate expression of what Andreas Zygan is talking about. And we’ve also seen what the toned-down production version will look like. We can’t go into detail, but let’s just say the rear cabin of the top-of-the-range version of this all-new MPV makes the interior of a Maybach S680 look somewhat cramped and under-equipped.
VAN.EA is one of four all-new electric vehicle architectures Mercedes-Benz is rolling out before the end of this decade. It joins MMA, which has been designed to underpin electric powered versions of the new CLA sedan, the CLA Shooting Brake, and the next-generation GLA and GLB SUVs, and MB.EA, which has debuted under the GLC with EQ Technology, and will underpin electric powered variants of the next generation C-Class, E-Class, and S-Class, as well as the GLE and GLS SUVs. The fourth, AMG.EA, will debut under a Posche Taycan–busting electric-powered four-door coupe expected to arrive in 2026 and will also underpin a full-size, high-performance electric powered SUV due in 2027.
Two versions of VAN.EA are being developed. VAN.EA Commercial is aimed at business van users who just want to haul loads around urban areas as quickly and efficiently as possible and is expected to account for 80 percent of sales. VAN.EA Private has been designed specifically to replace the current V-Class MPV, and is primarily aimed at North America and China, as well as the European markets where the V-Class has long sold as a premium multi-seat family van and prestige shuttle service vehicle.
The two versions of VAN.EA share a common powertrain concept and numerous components such as e-motors and battery packs and 800-volt electrical hardware, as well as the new MB.OS software architecture. But unlike the current V-Class MPV, which is essentially a commercial van with a fully trimmed interior, more seats, more sound deadening, car-like tires, and softer suspension, the VAN.EA MPV has a completely different, more aerodynamic body that’s been developed with the assistance of Mercedes-Benz passenger car body engineers to ensure low levels of noise, vibration, and harshness, and a complex rear suspension engineered with help from AMG.
Unlike the MB.EA electric vehicle architecture, which places the primary e-motor at the rear axle, VAN.EA has its main motor at the front axle. That’s because Mercedes engineers wanted a completely flat floor from front to rear for better load carrying. Two-wheel-drive VAN.EA vehicles will thus be front-wheel drive and 4Matic models will have an e-motor that’s half the size and with half the power of the front unit driving the rear wheels. Compared with the front e-motor, which has its inverter and power stacked above it, the rear e-motor has also been rotated through 90 degrees to the rear so its smaller inverter and power electronics can be packaged underneath the floor.
Given its premium positioning the electric-powered Mercedes MPV will be well equipped. Full details have yet to be revealed, but in hardware terms Stuttgart insiders hint the U.S.-market models will be 4Matic, with a battery that delivers an EPA-rated range of more than 300 miles and equipped with air suspension and rear-wheel steering. And, co-incidentally, that was the mechanical specification of the MPV prototype we drove at Mercedes-Benz’s winter test facility near Arjeplog, Sweden.
Other than a production-specification dash, steering wheel, and front door panels, this prototype’s interior was essentially untrimmed, a bare metal box with four seats and data collection equipment bolted to the rear floor. Yet interior noise levels over the occasionally rough roads were lower than in the ritzy V300d Exclusive we drove in Germany last year. There was no trace of resonance through the body structure, no loud thumps from the suspension, and no hint of noise from the e-motors. It felt as solid as a steel billet. “The body-in-white is where it all starts,” says Benjamin Kaehler, chief engineer of Mercedes-Benz vans. “It was engineered as a passenger car, not a commercial vehicle.”
A highly rigid body structure enables chassis engineers to better finesse the suspension and steering, and though our time behind the wheel was short, it was clear the MPV rides and steers like a car rather than a commercial vehicle. Mercedes-Benz’s new digital brake system provided excellent feel and control and the rear-steering system delivered great agility in tight corners and a turning circle that appeared to be well under 30 feet. The hardware and software felt well up to the task of handling a powertrain that will, Mercedes engineers smile, enable the MPV to zoom from zero to 60 mph in less than seven seconds. Under full acceleration, the torque output of the front e-motor is electronically limited so the rear wheels can punch the MPV off the line.
“What’s behind me is not important,” said Raul Julia in The Cannonball Run as he ripped the rearview mirror from the windshield of his Ferrari Daytona Spider. It’s the same in the Mercedes VAN.EA MPV: From the driver’s seat the van-like volume behind you simply doesn’t exist. It feels like you’re driving an expensive, confident-handling, good-riding, road-oriented SUV. And that sensation is made stronger by the fact that even though you sit high behind the steering wheel, the MPV does not have a traditional van-like driving position. The angle of the steering wheel, and your relationship to various hard points such as the dash and the pedals and the base of the A-pillars, is exactly as if you were driving a Mercedes SUV.
The most intriguing thing about the new Mercedes-Benz MPV is that although it has been engineered from the get-go as an electric vehicle, there will be a version powered by an internal combustion engine. A variant of the VAN.EA platform dubbed VAN.CA (EA stands for electric architecture; CA stands for combustion architecture) is being hurriedly developed to accommodate internal combustion engine powertrains and will be used to underpin both commercial and MPV models.
“We’re still convinced the automotive future is electric,” says Benjamin Kaehler, who describes the VAN.CA as a ‘bridging’ architecture, designed after it became clear the transition to EVs was not happening as quickly as expected. VAN.EA and VAN.CA vehicles will share 70 percent of their parts, Kaehler says, but the internal combustion engine models won’t arrive until well after the electric powered versions appear in 2026.
A luxury MPV that costs as much as an S-Class sounds like a big gamble. But Mercedes-Benz product planners are acutely aware that aftermarket shops in China and the U.S. are already doing big business outfitting V-Class and Sprinter vans with luxurious, high-tech interiors, and they want to cut out the middlemen. “This combination of space and luxury [in the production model] is rarely available from a single source,” says Benjamin Kaehler. “Customers will be willing to pay for a vehicle that’s not a commercial vehicle variant.” And that’s the key point. This new Mercedes-Benz MPV is a van, but it doesn’t look like a commercial vehicle. Most importantly, it doesn’t drive like one.
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t fascinated by cars. My father was a mechanic, and some of my earliest memories are of handing him wrenches as he worked to turn a succession of down-at-heel secondhand cars into reliable family transportation. Later, when I was about 12, I’d be allowed to back the Valiant station wagon out onto the street and drive it around to the front of the house to wash it. We had the cleanest Valiant in the world.
I got my driver’s license exactly three months after my 16th birthday in a Series II Land Rover, ex-Australian Army with no synchro on first or second and about a million miles on the clock. “Pass your test in that,” said Dad, “and you’ll be able to drive anything.” He was right. Nearly four decades later I’ve driven everything from a Bugatti Veyron to a Volvo 18-wheeler, on roads and tracks all over the world. Very few people get the opportunity to parlay their passion into a career. I’m one of those fortunate few.
I started editing my local car club magazine, partly because no-one else would do it, and partly because I’d sold my rally car to get the deposit for my first house, and wanted to stay involved in the sport. Then one day someone handed me a free local sports paper and said they might want car stuff in it. I rang the editor and to my surprise she said yes. There was no pay, but I did get press passes, which meant I got into the races for free. And meet real automotive journalists in the pressroom. And watch and learn.
It’s been a helluva ride ever since. I’ve written about everything from Formula 1 to Sprint Car racing; from new cars and trucks to wild street machines and multi-million dollar classics; from global industry trends to secondhand car dealers. I’ve done automotive TV shows and radio shows, and helped create automotive websites, iMags and mobile apps. I’ve been the editor-in-chief of leading automotive media brands in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States. And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. The longer I’m in this business the more astonished I am these fiendishly complicated devices we call automobiles get made at all, and how accomplished they have become at doing what they’re designed to do. I believe all new cars should be great, and I’m disappointed when they’re not. Over the years I’ve come to realize cars are the result of a complex interaction of people, politics and process, which is why they’re all different. And why they continue to fascinate me.Read More
