Mercedes-Benz Vitoria, sustainable foundations for a new leap in electrification

At the end of 2022, it was announced that the new mid-size van based on the new VAN.EA electric modular platform will be produced at Mercedes-Benz Vitoria from the middle of the current decade. After starting production of the Vito e-Cell in 2010 as a key milestone in the production of electric vehicles at the then Daimler, the Alava plant has been producing the mid-sized V-Class, the EQV, e-Vito and e-Vito Tourer, the Marco Polo camper version and, more recently, the EQV. This model is considered by the company to be the first premium MPV with all-electric drive. It is produced on the same line as the conventionally powered V-Class to facilitate flexible production in response to customer demand. The EQV combines the versatility of the V-Class with the benefits of its zero-emissions local status, the company says.

On the way to its first 70 years, the production potential of the three-shift factory includes milestones such as reaching the milestone of one million Vito and V-Class units produced in April 2022. The 1,000,000th unit was an EQV electric minivan in hyacinth red, destined for the German market. The Mercedes-Benz plant in Vitoria is the second largest van plant in the world of the Mercedes-Benz Group and an agreement with the workers signed until 2026 paves the way for attracting future projects, backed by considerable investments. 

The factory is located in a city such as Vitoria-Gasteiz with a large environmental footprint, as demonstrated by the pilot test carried out in July 2023 by DHL Express and Mercedes-Benz Vans. The test was conducted to obtain concrete metrics on how the replacement of diesel-powered vans with their 100% electric equivalents could impact the environment. The initiative ran for one month and consisted of running the same delivery routes, under the same loading conditions, with a Sprinter 314 CDI for two weeks and for the remaining two weeks with an eSprinter.

Sustainable production

With its sights set on the year 2039, the Basque plant has configured a far-reaching "green" approach. To align with the demands of society, the strategic objectives of the Vitoria plant have been integrated into the Mercedes-Benz strategy known as Lane Change (Spurwechsel, in German). This approach encompasses several complementary objectives that involve all stages of production, from the factory to the suppliers to the vehicles themselves.

In the area of the production process, the Greenproduction 2022/2030 project designed by Mercedes-Benz defines efficiency targets that envisage the achievement of several challenges by that date. In terms of vehicle production, the path begun with the Vito e-Cell in 2010 is to culminate in 2039 with the complete production of CO2-neutral vehicles. In addition, the Group is working on the development of Smart Cities by understanding the needs of cities and providing new solutions such as the Mercedes-Benz eCitaro city bus, a 100% electrified vehicle that is already part of the urban landscape in many European locations.

In this sense, the specific contribution of the factory to the Basque capital to improve sustainable mobility and quality of life in the city's surroundings is articulated on a number of key dates. The first materialised in 2019 with the first sustainable mobility plan with a result of 10,741 kg/day of CO2. By 2030, we are working towards a reduction of CO2 emissions to 5,000 kg/day and, finally, CO2-free mobility will be achieved by 2039.

Suppliers and circular economy

The strategy, known as Lane Change, not only involves the vehicles themselves, but also the members of the supply chain of the Vitoria factory and the group as a whole. Its aim is to ensure that all suppliers apply corporate sustainability criteria similar to those already implemented by Mercedes-Benz. These include the implementation of an environmental management system certified to ISO 14001, EMAS or another compatible standard; the effective reduction of CO2 emissions in the supply chains of suppliers of materials such as iron, aluminium or components such as batteries, responsible for the emission of around 80% of total CO2. The exclusive use of renewable energies from 2022 onwards is also being promoted, in line with the Vitoria factory's roadmap.

The Group also collaborates with organisations such as the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a non-profit organisation in which leading international companies and institutions are represented to mitigate the effects of energy use and seek a more environmentally responsible approach.

The Group has made the recycling and reuse of resources used in the production process the key to sustainability. Mercedes-Benz has made these actions current and future strategic activities and aims to turn its value chain into an ever more extensive closed loop, which is able to absorb and return to the production cycle the waste generated in the process through various actions such as the reconditioning of used original parts to minimise waste and avoid unnecessary consumption of resources and energy where possible; the reuse of batteries in stationary energy storage units, or second-life energy storage systems; the identification of critical raw materials, allowing the geological and socio-economic criteria of these to be analysed and their social risks to be observed; and the creation of materials with a lower environmental impact to favour reuse and recycling.

All these dynamics are in line with Spurwechsel's strategy to manage an environment in which the availability of resources is decreasing. Efforts are being made to increasingly decouple resource consumption from production growth, for example by closing material cycles, making processes even more efficient and increasing the proportion of recycling in products to promote the development of a circular economy.

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Report published in AutoRevista 2.384