With Chevy rebadging the Nissan NV200, is the domestic van segment dead?

By John LeBlanc If the commercial van seen above wearing a Chevrolet bow tie looks vaguely familiar, that’s because it’s a rebadged Nissan. This week, America’s General Motors confirmed it would sell a version of the existing Nissan NV200 Compact Cargo commercial van as the Chevrolet City Express in the U.S. and Canada. Via a press release, Ed Peper, U.S. vice president of GM Fleet and Commercial Sales said, “Our fleet customers have asked us for an entry in the commercial small van segment, so this addition to the Chevrolet portfolio will strengthen our position with fleets and our commercial customers.” Fair enough. But when the Chevrolet City Express goes on sale in late 2014 as a 2015 model, it will be yet another foreign-designed commercial van being sold to North American buyers. At one point in history, mighty GM didn’t have to get in bed with the competition for a new vehicle. Up until 2005, GM had its domestically designed Chevrolet Astro and GMC Safari small vans to sell.  But like its Detroit rivals, Ford and Chrysler, a U.S-designed commercial van seems to be a thing of the past. As you may know, Ford recently replaced its long-running (since 1961, when it debuted as the Econoline) full-size E-Series with its European-designed Transit. Crosstown rival Chrysler hasn’t built a domestically designed commercial van since the Dodge Ram Van went out of production in 2003. A rebadged Mercedes-Benz Sprinter initially replaced the Dodge van, and now another rebadged Euro-van (a Fiat Ducato) will be sold this fall as the Ram ProMaster. The lone survivors in the shrinking U.S-designed commercial van class are GM’s Chevrolet Express and GMC Savanna full-size vans and the Dodge Caravan-based Ram Cargo Van. Er, that’s it. So we have to ask: Is the announcement of Chevy’s rebadged Nissan van yet another indication that the domestically designed van segment is dead? And potentially more interesting, could this trend of global commercial vehicles ooze into the U.S- designed full-size truck market?

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