While most car makers are busy electrifying their vans and consider that a huge leap forward, Mercedes-Benz has come up with a concept that reinvents this whole class of vehicle. The Mercedes Vision URBANETIC is an electric, autonomous, multipurpose van that truly deserves the title of the van of the future. 

Looking wild and sexy with its special design, the Mercedes Vision URBANETIC is an on-demand, modular vehicle for urban use. You can fit different bodies to it for different purposes. The vehicle itself is basically an electrically powered chassis on top of which you can install various bodies. Whether it’s people you want to move or cargo, there is a module for it. With a length of 5.4 meters and a load space of 3.7 meters, the cargo module can carry up to ten EPAL pallets.

Most importantly, Mercedes Vision URBANETIC is electric and silent, something we think all commercial vehicles should be. Even better, this thing is autonomous and can be operated as a networked fleet for delivery of goods and people. So you eliminate the rude and noisy van drivers as well! The vehicle has an AI system that can learn about what’s going on in the city and, for instance, adapts itself to the transport needs when, say, there is a concert in town people are flocking to.

The overall system can use the data captured by the vehicle control centre – which collates and analyses needs – to identify a crowd of people gathering in a certain area. It can send vehicles there to quickly and efficiently satisfy the increased demand. The system can thus react flexibly and is not based on rigid routes or fixed timetables.