Natural gas Sprinter on the way

Mercedes-Benz will introduce a natural gas-powered Sprinter commercial vehicle to market, from next month.

The Sprinter NGT will be sold in 316 and 516 variants, with van, crew cab, pick-up and cab chassis body styles.

Basically a dual-fuel vehicle, the supercharged spark-ignition engine will run on both petrol and natural gas. According to Mercedes-Benz, the 1.8-litre engine develops 115kW of power and 240Nm of torque. Quieter than diesel engines, the supercharged 1.8 is also cheaper by 30 per cent in day-to-day running.

As a bonus, it's also cleaner than both diesel and petrol engines and is described by MB as "virtually CO2-neutral when powered by biogas".

The 'bivalent natural-gas drive system' complies with the current EU4 emissions standard, running on either petrol or natural gas. By combining the two fuels, the Sprinter NGT offers a range of up to 1200km. Customers will be able to specify gas tanks capable of holding up to 294 litres (for the smaller 316 models). In the case of the 516 models, the total gas storage is reduced to 246 litres. Even with the additional tanks fitted, the kerb mass of the Sprinter rises by no more than 300kg -- possibly as little as 170kg, depending on gas tank options and vehicle variant specifications.

As with other dual-fuel systems, the Sprinter NGT's bivalent system lets the driver know with an illuminated warning light when the vehicle is running on natural gas.

The supercharged four drives through a six-speed manual transmission, with the option of an automatic also available.

At the present, no date has been set for a local launch, but given the Australian market's tolerance for LPG vehicles (more here), the lucky country would seem to be a strong prospect for the dual-fuel Sprinter.

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