“This is my baby,” said Nissan’s Andy Palmer last year at the Tokyo Motor Show, and affectionately patted the head of Nissan’s new NV350 Caravan. “Let’s be honest. The competitor is the Hiace. This car beats Hiace in every single way you could imagine.” This morning in Yokohama, Andy’s baby did its first steps into the rough world of light commercial vehicles.
11 long years after the launch of the previous generation of its legendary Caravan, Nissan today launched a fully redesigned Caravan, newly-named “NV350 Caravan.”
The car comes with 3 meters (9 feet 10 inches) of cargo space, the most in its class. It also comes with amenities formerly known from high-end sedans, such as push engine start, intelligent key and more.
The NV350 receives power from either a 2 liter or 2.5 liter gasoline engine. A newly developed supercharged 2.5 liter diesel engine promises 12.2 kilometers per liter ( 28.7 mpg, definitely non-EPA).
The new NV350 Caravan will be available first in Japan and then globally. The diesel engine model and super long body will be on sale beginning July 13, 2012, and the wide version model is planned for launch in winter 2012.
Are these things designed to be ugly on purpose? A small business man with any pride in the appearance of his business will have to have a very compelling reason to buy one of these.
The front and back are all right (for a commercial van), but the rising window line on the front door looks just strange and out of place compared to the rest of the side windows.
Maybe Sajeev can weigh in on this design?
Have you seen average traffic content in Japan? Most vans of this type such as the HiAce are similarly styled. The driving position in the front row is elevated over the mechanicals. Look at the steering wheel. It kind of gives off the aura of a semi tractor that many people prefer.
I definitely have … I was last in Tokyo in April, and will be there again in two weeks.
No issues about the driving position or the need for visibility. But what stylist decided that the front door needs that massive upsweep?
THis thing looks so much like a HiAce it’s almost like a chinese copy. The only thing different is the grille.
As for design, I’m sure styling is of very low priority, might not be a priority at all. It’s all utility, the plunging front side windows helps line of sight, useful when guiding the van through very narrow street in Japan. Usually there’s even a small mirror sticking out of the front of the car to help the driver see the front bumper. You can see one on this Nissan.
When I lived in Japan my employer had a Hi Ace that I drove on occasion. It was entirely utilitarian; a giant rubbery-smelling box on wheels. I always felt exposed sitting out front of the wheels and the thing bucked like a bronco on the highway. It got the job done, but I never felt safe in it.
From the outside, this Nissan looks almost identical so I can’t imagine it will end up handling much better. And, unless all those special features come standard, I’m betting the average commercial driver’s lot isn’t going to inmprove all that much either.
Still, I like Nissan so more power to ’em!
Well, it’s no Delica, but I like it. I’d love to see more cab-over stuff hit the North American shores, but I think we’ve crossed that bridge, lit it on fire, knocked it into the river, and destroyed the abutments.
I drove a Delica 2 wheel drive (not one of the raised 4 wheel drive ones) every day for two years. My route included a stretch of the Keihan elevated expressway and various surface streets around Kobe and Osaka.
I thought the Delica was a tuna can that handled like a pig on stilts. On the highway the wind noise made it sound like the doors were going to blow off. I can’t tell you how many times people thought I was going faster than the speed limit because of the way the most mild headwind made it sound like I was going 100 mph.
With a full load of people (including with the jumpseat down) it was a ponderous beast. Overall, it was OK around town – not nearly as easy to move around as the Hi Ace or my own Mazda MPV – but it had almost no composure at all on the highway.
As a cabinetmaker I can appreciate a van of this sort, very practical and comfortable to my eyes. As far as anyone being embarrassed by owning one of these, that’s funny, it’s a van, it’s supposed to be boxy with a practical design. Personally I like it, diesel especially, the only embarrassment might be taking on more overhead with economic growth slowing.
I love it! Too bad cab-over-engine type minivans are not available in the US- these vehicles have unbelievable turning radius and agility.
No way this would ever meet US DOT frontal crash standards. That’s why the VW Vanagon family went away.
Most of the minivans that I’ve looked at lately have been too plushy and civilized by half for me.
This also looks like a badass industrial version of the Volkswagen minibus that my dad drove when I was a little kid. This thing is probably more reliable, and less of a deathtrap, too.
If it can tow as well as my Escape, then it would be a perfect man’s minivan. Even if it can’t tow, that 9-foot cargo space makes it far more useful for hardware store runs than the 47-7/8″x95″ cargo area available (just shy of the 50″x98″ footprint that you actually need to transport sheet goods) on those plushy civilized minivans. If I can hose out the interior, it would be a better truck (for my purposes) than the Ranger that I drove for years, or the F-150 that I co-own.
There’s a lot to like about this beast. I’ll keep an eye out for US availability. It probably wouldn’t be my daily-driver, but I bet it would be a great heavy-hauler and travel/camping vehicle.
My work vehicle is a HiAce and nobody buys these vans for styling, luxury or handling. They are bought for purely practical reasons- load space, reliability, low running costs and long life. It’s all about the money, and in places where fuel costs are higher than the U.S (most of the world) the American style commercials just cost too much to run.
I took both new Toyota hiace D4D and Nissan nv350 for test drives. I purchased the nv350, in my mind it leaves the hiace for dead in every way.ive have chipped it so it now puts out 450nm instead of 356nm. it whips up to 180kph and still has more and is still cheap to run;)