Photo: S. Baldauf/SB-Medien
While the minivan segment has struggled to keep up with the crossover boom these past few years, there are still several automakers committed to keeping the people carrier alive. Mercedes finds itself among them, and they have several proposals for this segment.
One of them is the premium B-Class, which won’t live past its current generation. The other is the Citan, a vehicle based on the same platform as the Renault Kangoo and Nissan Townstar, joined by more upmarket versions, with more bells and whistles, the T-Class. And it is the Citan that is now getting ready to welcome a new addition to the family.
Spied in a premiere by our vigilant photographers, the long wheelbase version of the Citan will accommodate an extra row of seats behind the second one. This was made possible by extending the space between the axles, which will otherwise translate to increased hauling when it comes to the panel vans. On models sporting the elongated wheelbase, the rear arch does not protrude into the rear door, unlike the standard-length versions.
As for the prototypes snapped by our man with the cam, there were quite a few of them resting on the back of a trailer that was supposedly heading to Europe’s frozen north for cold-weather testing. A closer look at the images shared in the gallery above reveals that we are looking at the Tourer Base and Tourer Pro variants of the Citan, with the former featuring black plastic bumpers and hubcaps, joined by the short wheelbase T-Class. A second batch of scoops reveals pre-production LWB Citans, in the same configurations, quietly sitting in a parking lot surrounded by ice and snow.
It is likely that the long wheelbase versions of the Mercedes-Benz Citan will still be offered with the same assortment of engines. These comprise the Alliance’s 1.3-liter gasoline burner and 1.5-liter diesel, with six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmissions available. Chances are we will see a zero-emission variant of the longer models too, featuring the ‘e’ prefix, offered as an all-quiet alternative to the ICE-powered derivatives mentioned above.
Sales of the Citan LWB (name unconfirmed) are expected to kick off in the Old Continent later this year, subsequent to the grand unveiling that is probably a few months away. Look for slightly more expensive starting prices compared to the standard wheelbase options, and the same amount of gizmos on the inside. You don’t have to be a minivan connoisseur to tell that it won’t make its way to North America at all, where the only Mercedes vans on sale remain the Sprinter and the Metris. Mind you, the latter is understood to be discontinued after the current model year, thus leaving Americans with the Sprinter as the only choice when it comes to the three-pointed star brand.
Spied in a premiere by our vigilant photographers, the long wheelbase version of the Citan will accommodate an extra row of seats behind the second one. This was made possible by extending the space between the axles, which will otherwise translate to increased hauling when it comes to the panel vans. On models sporting the elongated wheelbase, the rear arch does not protrude into the rear door, unlike the standard-length versions.
As for the prototypes snapped by our man with the cam, there were quite a few of them resting on the back of a trailer that was supposedly heading to Europe’s frozen north for cold-weather testing. A closer look at the images shared in the gallery above reveals that we are looking at the Tourer Base and Tourer Pro variants of the Citan, with the former featuring black plastic bumpers and hubcaps, joined by the short wheelbase T-Class. A second batch of scoops reveals pre-production LWB Citans, in the same configurations, quietly sitting in a parking lot surrounded by ice and snow.
It is likely that the long wheelbase versions of the Mercedes-Benz Citan will still be offered with the same assortment of engines. These comprise the Alliance’s 1.3-liter gasoline burner and 1.5-liter diesel, with six-speed manual or seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmissions available. Chances are we will see a zero-emission variant of the longer models too, featuring the ‘e’ prefix, offered as an all-quiet alternative to the ICE-powered derivatives mentioned above.
Sales of the Citan LWB (name unconfirmed) are expected to kick off in the Old Continent later this year, subsequent to the grand unveiling that is probably a few months away. Look for slightly more expensive starting prices compared to the standard wheelbase options, and the same amount of gizmos on the inside. You don’t have to be a minivan connoisseur to tell that it won’t make its way to North America at all, where the only Mercedes vans on sale remain the Sprinter and the Metris. Mind you, the latter is understood to be discontinued after the current model year, thus leaving Americans with the Sprinter as the only choice when it comes to the three-pointed star brand.
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