How hard was Mercedes-Benz hit by the downturn in light commercial registrations?

Last year presented us with a huge challenge, an extreme challenge. It was one of the first times ever that we’d been hit by such a deep dip in van sales. Demand fell by 40%, so our team had to work very hard to bring down our costs. That’s what you have to do if there’s a crisis and orders for your products just aren’t there. On the other hand we had to keep investing in research and development because we knew demand would come back. The only question was when. It was, in fact, a bit astonishing to us that we saw such a good recovery in Europe earlier this year, but it has put us back on track sooner than we expected, and that is great.

Will the recovery be sustainable in your opinion?

I think what we will see for the rest of this year and into 2011 in Europe will be a slow but steady increase in demand. It will be sustainable growth. In my view that’s better than a sudden rocketing upwards in business because you never know if that will end with a double-dip recession. I don’t think we’ll see a double-dip on this side of the Atlantic, but there’s a bit of a risk of it in the USA because unemployment is high and they still have problems in the housing market.

Amid all this you have been involved in a major renewal of your product range, including the launch of the new Sprinter. How well has the new model been received?

The reaction has been very positive. Buyers appreciate the whole package, and fortunately the Sprinter sector of
the market has been one that’s recovered particularly well. We’ve hit it at just the right time and we’re taking an 18.3% market share across Europe. Customers like the decision we made to go straight to the Euro5 exhaust emission standard on everything before we had to (that’s been especially well-received in the UK), they like the new four-cylinder diesel engine and the new transmission, and they like Sprinter’s fuel efficiency. Combining the engine with EcoStart [which shuts down the engine in stationary traffic, reducing fuel consumption by 7-10% as well as cutting CO2 emissions] is especially beneficial so far as fuel economy is concerned.

How popular an option is EcoStart  proving to be?

Around 10-15% of Sprinters are ordered with it and the percentage is increasing.

At present it’s offered solely in combination with a manual gearbox. How soon before it’s available with an automatic box?

That will take a while because we’re having to develop a completely new gearbox system to accommodate it. But we’re working on it.

The Sprinter is marketed with some beefy engines, in particular the 190hp V6 3.0-litre diesel. Is there a real need for all that power in a van?

Remember that the Sprinter goes up to 5.0 tonnes. The V6 is well-suited to that sort of weight because as well as being powerful it provides more than enough torque. It’s certainly not just there for marketing purposes – customers genuinely want it.

Moving back down the weight scale, you’ve recently unveiled the latest Vito. It’s early days, but what’s the response been?

So far the feedback has been positive both from the press and from our dealers. The feeling seems to be that we’ve spent our money to good effect, especially when it comes to improving fuel economy, and comfort and reducing noise, vibration and harshness. Now we’ll see what the customers think.

You’ve retained the foot-operated parking brake. Why?

It’s a Mercedes-Benz icon. It’s an approach that’s associated with us – my own car has one – so we’ve decided to stick with it. It works perfectly and it’s easy to use. Most importantly, we’ve had no negative feedback about it. If customers had said they didn’t like a foot-operated parking brake, then we’d have found another solution. But they didn’t, so we don’t think there’s any need to change it.