Although a Mercedes employee was driving, the whole thing was observed by a third party: TĂśV SĂśD (not an EV organization, but a testing company of all products)
"The efficiency test was strictly monitored by the product testing and compliance organization, TĂśV SĂśD. The tires were inflated to the manufacturer's specification before leaving and a TĂśV SĂśD representative rode inside the van as a passenger to oversee compliance.
Under this TĂśV SĂśD supervision, a Mercedes employee was able to drive the new eSprinter from Stuggart to Munich and back, covering a total of 295 miles and ending with 3% state of charge displayed."
300 miles is good, but not remarkable. Given enough battery module capacity, it could drive 2000+ miles. But you'd lose a little interior cargo room, like the bottom 6". Given a 100 gallon tank, a diesel Sprinter could drive 2300 miles, but you'd lose a little interior cargo room. At some point, more driving range is pointless, especially to the average driver. The industry has determined that 350 miles is what most people want/need. Thus our 25gal tank, and compact cars 10gal tanks.
Range and charge time are the two biggest bugaboos for the potential electric propulsion vehicle buyers. Range is pretty much solved for the average consumer, and the DC>DC superchargers can dump over 20 miles per minute into a battery. But those are only in the pricey cars like the Lucid. I've had slow gas pumps that were only putting in a gallon or two every minute. At 15-16mpg, the EVs would be refueling faster, but this is comparing the extremes on either side. Filling up with gas/diesel is still much faster, for when you need to get out of the pit and back into the race sooner. But charge time is still the biggest hurdle, even if it's importance is exaggerated. Most people would be just fine charging up overnight at home once a week to get 300 miles, or at a supercharger for an hour while they have lunch or go see a movie or shop or whatever.
No, if you drive hundreds of miles a day, these are not for YOU. But because they won't work for YOU (or me) doesn't mean they should be denied to people they do work for. I'm going to choose to not purchase an eVan until they are more convenient for the way I use my van. Which I'm certain will be way before the CA EV new car law goes into effect in a dozen years. Doubt I'll still be in CA, but most of the world is doing the same thing. 300 mile Sprinter is getting close, but 500 mile with 8hr home charging or 1 hour supercharger would be more than fine. Besides, 8-10 year warranty on the batteries, as now required by law; fast-charge all the time reducing the battery life, and get new batteries right before warranty expires!
insideevs.com
