(December 12, 2019) DUSSELDORF, Germany — The founder of its own segment — the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter — is taking the next step and will, in the future be producing electric vans. This week the Mercedes-Benz Dusseldorf plant celebrated the start of production of the Mercedes-Benz eSprinter.

The Stuttgart-based manufacturer has been building its globally successful vans in Dusseldorf since 1962. Ever since, the plant has continually developed to become in recent years the leading Sprinter plant worldwide and to serve as a benchmark for the other locations.

The implementation of future-oriented technologies and production methods as well as their consistent testing benefits the entire production network of Mercedes-Benz Vans.

More than 4.6 million vehicles have been produced in Dusseldorf to date. Since 2018, production of the new Sprinter has also taken place there, with over 200,000 units having already left the assembly line. And now the production of the fully electric eSprinter marks the beginning of a new era in Dusseldorf.

Over the past years, already in advance of production of the new Sprinter and the new drive system variants, Mercedes-Benz Vans has invested around 330 million euros i($366 million) n the technical expansion of production, while taking into account the fact that, in future, the manufacture of both conventionally operated and fully electric vehicles will occur on a single production line.

Besides the comprehensive investments in the production systems, the plant has also been investing in the basic and advanced training of its own employees. Since the decision was made to build the eSprinter in Dusseldorf, the plant has become the competence center for electric drives and has developed the requisite expertise. To date more than 2,400 employees have been trained for handling and assembling the high-voltage technologies.

Mercedes-Benz Vans banks on sustainability not only in the products that it consistently electrifies and further optimizes, but in particular in its own production as well. The goal is to make all van production CO2-neutral by 2022. To this end various measures have been initiated as part of the so-called green production strategy. Energy purchasing at the Dusseldorf plant has also been consistently switching, and from 2022 electric power will be procured from 100 percent renewable sources only.

The CO2 balance sheet of transportation within the plant is also being addressed. At present, new mobility systems, such as on-demand plant shuttles, are being implemented in Dusseldorf. In addition, since 2012 the Dusseldorf plant has been a paperless factory and is increasingly relying on automatically guided fuel-cell vehicles. All these measures supplement one another and promote the speedy realization of the ambitious objectives set by the plant itself, to make a lasting contribution to climate protection.