  Coherent pion electroproduction on the deuteron is studied in the
$\Delta(1232)$ resonance region in the impulse approximation, i.e., neglecting
pion rescattering and two-body effects. The elementary reaction on the nucleon
is described in the framework of an effective Lagrangian approach including the
dominant $P_{33}(1232)$ resonance and the usual background terms of the Born
contributions for $\pi^0$ production. We have studied the influence of these
different contributions on the various structure functions which determine the
unpolarized exclusive differential cross section in a variety of kinematic
regions.
