Sprinter turns 20

Over 250 guests including politicians, economists and journalists recently gathered at the Mercedes-Benz Dusseldorf plant in Germany to officially mark the 20th anniversary of the brand's Sprinter light commercial vehicle.

First launched in 1995, the Sprinter is now produced in six factories spanning Germany, Argentina, China, Russia and the USA. Sold in over 130 countries, just over 2.9 million Sprinters have been delivered to customers to date. These days it's still a giant on the LCV landscape, too – the 186,000 examples sold globally last year equated with year-on-year growth of 12 per cent.

Today over 65 per cent of Sprinter production is handled at the Dusseldorf plant, where a workforce of 6500 employees produces over 725 vehicles per day. This is complemented by a second German site in Ludwigsfelde, which came online with the introduction of the second generation Sprinter in 2006, and which now produces around 200 vehicles per day.

The Sprinter story began at the Dusseldorf plant, which has accounted for 2.4 million units thus far, while Sprinter production began in Buenos Aires a year later, in 1996.

In the USA – the model's largest market after Germany – the Sprinter has been in production since 2001. There it was originally made by Daimler brand Freightliner and it's been marketed under both that and the Dodge names while, from 2010, it's been sold as the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter.

It's also been made in China since 2011 and in Russia the first generation Sprinter is produced and sold as the Sprinter Classic, made under licence by partner firm GAZ since 2013.

According to Volker Mornhinweg (pictured, left), the Sprinter has achieved the success it has for good reason.

"The Sprinter is one of the most successful commercial vehicles of all time and a bestseller in the Daimler product portfolio," he said at the Sprinter's anniversary celebration.

"We expect to break our sales record again in 2015, which would make it the best Sprinter of all time. And we will continue to successfully further develop the Sprinter in the coming years."

Underpinning this sentiment is an investment of Euro 450 million into the modernisation of both German Sprinter production plants, while around $US500 million will be spent on the new Sprinter plant in Charleston in South Carolina, USA.

With a range of wheelbases, GVMs, roof heights, body styles, engines and transmissions on offer, Mercedes-Benz says there are over 1000 basic Sprinter variants available throughout the world.

Here in Australia the Sprinter truly dominates the large van market (GVMs from 3501-8000kg); to the end of August 2015 the model accounted for 40.5 per cent of large van and cab/chassis sales (VFACTS data, excluding light trucks).

Photo (L to R): Volker Mornhinweg, Head of Mercedes-Benz Vans; Hannelore Kraft, First Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia; and Dr Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars.