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CAP Blog > CAP Blog > Martin's Blog
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Sep
23
Written by:
Martin Ward
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
 Barcelona is home to the Nissan LCV plant and whilst the all new NV200 is currently being built in Japan, there are plans to assemble it in Spain. The Nissan Iberia factory currently produces the Nissan Navara Pick-up, Primastar and the Renault Trafic. The GM Vivaro, which is an identical van to the Nissan and the Renault, is split between Barcelona and Luton. The chief worry for Vauxhall workers at the LCV plant is that production could easily be switched to Spain in the near future, although no plans have yet been announced to move the assembly of Vauxhall vans abroad. However, Barcelona does have the spare capacity so it must be currently being looked at as a possibility in order to save money, but it will not save the jobs here in the UK.
 Nissan worldwide LCV sales have nearly doubled since 2004 when they sold 300,000 vehicles. In 2006 they sold 475,000 and last year the total amounted to 575,000. This year though, the figure is likely to be less than 2008. Nissan say sales will grow in the coming years as they expand into new markets and introduce new models. In the next five years they will introduce thirteen new LCV vehicles, of which six will be sold in Europe. In Europe, Nissan sold 50,000 LCV’s in 2007 but this dropped to 35,000 last year.
 The NV200 is 4.4m in length, which is odd as it doesn’t really fit into any established category. It sits somewhere in the middle between the smaller CDV vans and the larger ones such as the Fiat Scudo and Peugeot Expert. Nissan say its main competitors are the Renault Kangoo, Citroen Berlingo, Peugeot Partner, Volkswagen Caddy, Fiat Doblo and Ford Transit Connect. The NV200 will be available with a choice of two engines in Europe: a 1.6 petrol and a 1.5 DCi diesel that produces 86ps. It is unlikely that the petrol engine will be sold in the UK as Nissan see very little demand for it and they are probably right.
This new compact van will be available as a standard panel van with twin sliding side doors and twin rear opening doors, with an option of a one piece tailgate. It will also be available as a combi with a choice of five or seven seats. The five seat version has the rear section of bodywork in metal, whereas the seven seat has darkened glass at the rear. The windows on the sliding doors do look to be of normal size from the outside but once inside, they are deceptively tiny. Children in the second row may not have a good view as the windows are relatively high, but visibility for the third row passengers is much better. All the seats are comfortable, with the third row having plenty of legroom; being almost full size, they can accommodate two adults in complete comfort, allowing plenty of space. These two seats on the third row also fold up sideways and stow neatly to the side, thus providing extra luggage space when needed but even when the third row of seats are being used, there is still a good amount of space, but probably not enough to get six suitcases in. As a seven seater this would make an ideal airport taxi, despite the boot space being a bit limited. Another use would be for people who need wheelchair access as the NV200 could be easily adapted for this purpose. The two front seats are higher than the competition so you do have better visibility and a commanding position.
 We drove a van with the 1.5 dCi engine and whilst it wasn’t overly powerful, it did seem to do an adequate job and we did have quite a lot of weight in the cargo area. At traffic lights and roundabouts it was certainly not the quickest away and once or twice we did find it to be struggling a little. The NV200 has a payload of 770kg and a 2 metre cargo length but this van scores highly because the floor level is extremely low, making it very easy to put goods in and get them out again without having to lift them onto a high cargo floor. The cargo area will take two Euro pallets and has a roof height of 1.86m, so it will certainly carry some bulky goods.
Safety has not been forgotten on this van, as ABS, EBD and brake assistance are all standard features. The van will be available in two trims: the E which will account for 5% of sales and the SE, which will account for 85%.The combi version is expected to account for only 10% of total sales. The NV200 goes on sale in the UK in November this year and Nissan UK say they will sell around 2,000 in 2010 and 3,000 in 2011.
Prices have not yet been announced but they are expected to be competitive with its closest rivals.
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