NV200 receives International Van of the Year 2010 award

Andy Palmer, Senior Vice President, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd, has accepted the International Van of the Year (IVoY) award for Nissan’s segment breaking NV200. The award was given by the IVoY Jury Chairman, Pieter Wieman during a ceremony held at Nissan’s Barcelona plant, where the NV200 is produced for Europe.

The IVoY trophy is awarded every year to the light commercial vehicle which is deemed to have made the greatest contribution to transport efficiency. The jury, representing 23 countries, gave the NV200 an impressive total of 107 points out of a maximum possible 161.

“The Jury was particularly impressed by the fact that Nissan has created a compact light commercial vehicle that sets new standards in terms of internal space in relation to its external dimensions.” Said Pieter Wieman. “The NV200 is a very well-designed, compact, quality van with good economy,” continued Wieman.

 “We have very ambitious plans for the NV200,” said Palmer. “Globally, we plan to sell our van in markets as different as Japan, Europe and China. We are also considering sales in North America, Indonesia, India and other markets. In Europe we plan to sell over 35 thousand units per year. With such ambitions, the endorsement we receive with the IVoY award is a key asset for us. It will help us boost the awareness of the NV200 and raise its reputation from the start of sales,” Palmer concluded.

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 the lowest in its category at 524mm. As a result, NV200’s load cube offers a cargo volume of 4.2m3, about 25% or 1m3 more than that of its competitors.

The NV200 is being launched throughout Europe in two configurations: Van and Combi. A family version will join the line-up in 2010. Nissan announced recently that an electric light commercial vehicle based on the NV200 will be the second electric vehicle to be launched for the mass market by Nissan.