Mercedes BlueEfficiency Sprinter Features Start/Stop, Natural Gas

The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter line in Europe will now offer two variants carrying the automaker’s BlueEFFICIENCY label that denotes the use of environmentally positive technologies. These two models are quite different in their approach but both achieve improved environmental performance through higher efficiency or the use of an alternative fuel. They’re identified with BlueEFFICIENCY badges located near their left and right B-pillars.

Sprinters equipped with the automaker’s new efficiency package use a newly developed four-cylinder engine and ECO Gear transmission, along with an ECO start/stop function. The new diesel engine features three optional output ratings that include 95, 129, and 163 hp, covering almost all needs for vans in the Sprinter class. All offer notable pulling power with torque ratings of 184, 225, or 265 lb-ft torque that comes on strong at low engine speeds. The engines connect to a new ECO Gear six-speed manual transmission with an especially low first gear and an overdrive sixth that lower engine operating speeds.

The efficiency package also electrifies the Sprinter’s auxiliaries to eliminate some of the parasitic loads that reduce engine efficiency, a first in the van segment. For instance, an electrically controlled oil pump independently and adaptively regulates oil delivery according to demand. Piston-cooling oil spray nozzles also operate according to need, as does the alternator, thus consuming less energy.

Adopting one of the most important features of today’s hybrid passenger vehicles, the Sprinter efficiency package’s ECO start/stop function shuts down the engine when the vehicle is stopped to increase fuel economy by as much as eight percent. This is a particularly useful function for commercial vehicles like the Sprinter since the greatest savings is during urban stop-and-go driving, and that’s the environment in which Sprinters typically operate. The engine starts immediately when a driver releases the brake or depresses the clutch pedal.

Taking another approach, The Sprinter BlueEFFICIENCY NGT brings to bear an alternative fuel that’s quite popular around the world but, with the exception of the Honda Civic GX, used in the U.S. almost exclusively by large heavy-duty commercial vehicles. Available in both dedicated compressed natural gas and dual-fuel versions that run on either natural gas or diesel, the Sprinter NGT offers flexibility, lower operating costs, and reduced emissions. It also features greater driving range using both fuels.

Natural gas vehicles drive just like their conventionally fueled counterparts and refuel in the same amount of time. Fleets are natural applications because of their typical use of centralized fueling, predictable routes, and focus on operating costs … all good reasons why natural gas vehicles find their way to fleets first. As is often the case, fleets are proving grounds for new and advanced technologies or fuels that often enough make their way to consumers. That knowledge, along with the fact that natural gas is an abundant fuel in the U.S., makes us wish for more natural gas vehicles on American highways. Let’s hope that natural gas models like the Sprinter BlueEfficiency NGT make their way here sooner than later.