Nissan announces plans for next-gen small van in Europe
Nissan confirms plans for its next generation of vans in Europe. The new series will include electric and conventional drives and cover both the light commercial vehicle and passenger van segment. All vans will be made in France.
Like the current Nissan NV250 van, which has also been produced at Renault’s Maubeuge plant since 2019, the new model will utilise the Alliance platform, which also serves the next-generation Renault Kangoo as a base. Nissan will only announce further details, such as the model name at a later date.
For the Renault Kangoo electric van variant we know it will come in two body lengths and a load volume between 3.3 to 3.9 cubic meters or 4.2 to 4.9 cubic meters, depending on the version.
Nissan’s Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta stressed that utilising the shared platform and Renault’s facility in Maubeuge would bring “competitive advantages for both companies” and claimed it was another example of their “win-win strategy”.
With Nissan making the next-gen small vans at the Maubeuge plant means that in the future, all of Nissan’s vans for European customers will be manufactured in France.
What this means for the future of the Nissan eNV-200 remains unclear. Currently, Nissan is making the e-van in Barcelona, but already said they would close the Spanish plant at the end of this year. Whether Nissan will then carry on the technology to Maubeuge is open as Nissan will only announce further details such as the model name or more detailed product information later.
These cuts and relocations are also part of an on-going readjustment of the Alliance which they had announced in May last year. Renault and Nissan (and Mitsubishi) followed a ‘leader-follower’ principle for regions, vehicles and technologies to achieve greater efficiency and competitiveness in these areas. There will be “mother vehicles” and “sister vehicles” with the latter to be developed by the leading company. Back then, Renault was to take the lead in Europe.
Shortly after, Nissan had announced its own new strategy. The concept envisages a 20 per cent cut in the manufacturer’s global production capacity and confirming that Nissan will now derive its own vehicles from the Renault models, at least in Europe.
Still, the statement now published consider the new all-electric Nissan van to “build on the success of the e-NV200, which was the first all-electric commercial vehicle for the mass market when it was launched in 2014”. So far, Nissan sees production “alongside the next-generation Renault Kangoo” in France.
With reporting by Daniel Bönnighausen.
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