NV200, Nissan’s global all new small van, has been awarded the International Van of the Year (IVoY) 2010 by a jury consisting of 23 specialised European journalists representing a readership of more than half a million owners of commercial vehicles.
“The jury was impressed by the fact that Nissan created a compact light commercial vehicle that sets new standards in terms of internal space in relation to the external dimensions,” said the official statement from the IVoY jury.
“We are delighted to receive the IVoY 2010 award as the recognition of Nissan’s determination to create innovative light commercial vehicles that exceed customer expectations,” said Andy Palmer, senior vice-president of Nissan .
“The NV200 is a global vehicle that associates unmatched levels of functionality with unique and attractive design. We offer our customers a vehicle that is an efficient and reliable business tool,” said Palmer.
The NV200 is a real segment breaker with exterior dimensions comparable to a car derived van and cargo capacity of a higher class. It is 4,4m long, 1,86m tall and 1,69m wide and comes with a cavernous cargo space. Intelligent packaging delivers a cargo load bay more than 2m in length, sufficient to carry two standard Euro pallets at the same time. The cargo floor is claimed to be the lowest in its category, at only 524mm. As a result, NV200’s load cube offers a cargo volume of 4,2m³ , a bout 25% greater than the competitors’ average, offering an additional 1m³ .
The NV200 is already sold in Japan, where it instantly became the segment leader, with more than 40% market share. In 2010 it will be launched in China and sales in several other markets are in advanced study phase including SA , although according to Nissan spokesperson, Veralda Schmidt, the NV200 is unlikely to arrive here during the next year but is under consideration.
It will also be produced globally. It is produced in Japan and production in Europe will start this month, while production in China is planned for 2010.
The company is also planning a combi version and it recently announced that a light commercial vehicle based on the NV200 will be the second electric vehicle to be launched by Nissan.