Mercedes launches the Baccie

Although the traditionalist German brand currently produces some light commercial vans such as the Vito, the decision to move into the double-cab arena is an indication of how fast global markets are changing. Mercedes are focusing on Australia, South Africa and South America as these are all traditional bakkie markets and will give Mercedes volume early on and offset research costs. There has been a huge decline in sales in Europe due to the crisis in the Euro bloc.

This is being made worse due to accelerating fears about climate change. It is on this that Mercedes will be pinning their hopes. It is argued that the Baccie (Benz Advanced Climate Change Intervention Engineering) concept will revolutionise European driving habits.

As European governments and municipalities cut back on services that expand their carbon footprints, so households will have to fulfill these roles themselves. Enter the Baccie. It is expected that Baccie owners will, while enjoying all the luxury and comfort to which they are accustomed, provide a range of services, for which they can charge.

Baccie owners will start the day by collecting neighboring children for the school run. Mercedes engineered waste bins designed to fit snugly onto the load bay will accompany each child, thus replacing the waste removal service. These will be exchanged for bins, sterile of course, containing bread, milk and other essentials ordered over the internet from BOG (Benz Online Groceries).

The use of a hydrogen fuel cell engine which produces only pure water as a by-product which will allow households to do away with bottled water, a product that is blamed for a great deal of carbon production due to the plastic containers and transport costs.

An advanced 1-ton battery pack will be fitted once the supplies have been removed and this will be charged while the kids are being picked up that afternoon. It is believed this battery will provide enough power for four households for 24 hours. We applaud Mercedes for seeing this gap in the market, we’d be fools not to.