The market for small commercial vans in America is dwindling. For a while, Americans could get their hands on a commercial van that wasn’t just a minivan with blanked out windows. In 2009, Ford started bringing over its Transit Connect. Nissan followed it up with the NV200, with General Motors badge-engineering it into the Chevrolet City Express. Mercedes-Benz made a showing with the Metris, and Ram arrived on scene with its ProMaster City. If you needed a small commercial van, you had a bunch to choose from. Now, they appear to be going away. Chevrolet was the first to leave the market when the City Express was discontinued in 2018. The Nissan version of the same van marched on until 2021. You can still buy Ford’s Transit Connect and a Mercedes Metris, but both are reportedly dying off in 2023. That leaves us with the Ram ProMaster City. The van, a variant of the Fiat Doblò and replacement for the commercial version of the Dodge Grand Caravan, debuted in 2015. But now, as Automotive News reports, 2022 will be its final model year. We’ve done some digging, and it appears that once the Transit Connect and Metris are gone, America will be left without a small commercial van. The cargo version of the ID. Buzz is reportedly not coming to the States and who knows if or when we’ll see those wild Canoo vans. But why? Why are these vans disappearing? According to Dave Sowers, head of Ram Commercial, it’s because the ProMaster City wasn’t exactly a hot seller. From Automotive News: Automotive News goes on to describe those sales: “So we’re really refocusing all of our efforts in the commercial van segments over on the ProMaster.” The numbers sort of speak for themselves. Ram Commercial’s other van, the ProMaster, sold 63,361 units in 2021 and still managed to sell 50,556 of them in 2020. Meanwhile, the Ford Transit Connect finished 2021 with 26,112 units sold and 2020 with 34,596 units. The big difference in sales between the big van and the little van continued at Ford, where 99,745 Transits found a home in 2021 and 131,556 went to work in 2020. The difference in sales numbers between the Chevrolet Express and City Express were similar. Even the Mercedes-Benz Metris failed to capture an audience quite like the Sprinter does. Sowers notes in the Automotive News report that buyers are drawn to the ProMaster City for its good fuel economy. However, as the sales data shows, more commercial buyers seem to prefer the space and utility of a larger work van over the fuel economy of a small one. Still, there is a market for these vans, even if it’s a fraction of the bigger vans. What options will those people have in the future? Sowers expects the economy-conscious buyer of a ProMaster City to be drawn in by the bigger electric ProMaster. That van is set to arrive next year. Over at Ford, the Transit Connect may be dying, but the Transit lineup includes its own battery-electric version. As for the ProMaster City, the Turkey-built van was actually supposed to be killed off in 2021. But Stellantis kept it alive for just one more year. If you’re the kind of person who likes your commercial vans small, Stellantis says that dealership deliveries will continue into early 2023. After that, the chapter of the ProMaster City will be closed. And the trend is already over, the Promaster City was the last domino to fall. “For a while, Americans could get their hands on a commercial van that wasn’t just a minivan with blanked out windows. In 2009, Ford started bringing over its Transit Connect. “ Roads are wider, parking spaces are bigger, street parking is much less common, more people own their own homes, etc. The only real advantage these small vans had was fuel economy (maybe upfront cost but not significantly so), and with the electric versions of larger vans coming that’s a moot point. I’m an American living in southern Germany. While the small vans listed are here, so are larger vans. And buses. And CUVs of all makes and models. When you have the space, people tend to have larger vehicles. And you are correct: outside of the very inner core of certain US cities (NYC—really Manhattan), PHL, Boston, DC, LA, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, San Diego, San Francisco) you pretty much have street parking possibly a driveway for at least one car per household in older areas, and two spaces or a garage or driveway almost everywhere else. Streets are wide, lots of parking lots or garages for shopping or work areas…the need for a small van isn’t there for tradespersons….or anyone, really. Is it a huge niche? No, obviously, or these vans would be popular – there IS a market here, but it’s not a market that can support more than one player, which is why the Transit Connect did great until actual competition showed up, I imagine that the total annual sales in the category hasn’t actually changed at all. Rear wheel drive, will pull a trailer, very good ride empty or loaded, good turning radius, can put a 4×8 panel between the wheel wells, can get into low underground parking garages, more than enough power, reliable, and it gets 25 mpg. I was totally bummed when I read that it’s been cancelled in the US. I will get a new 2023 just before they stop importing, and hope to drive it for 200K miles… I wonder if the Craiova-built 2023 Transit Connect will also be a VW Caddy. That would be logical. The Transit Connect and ProMaster City were a little small for my needs, but a Transit or Promaster is WAY more van than I need. IDK what I’m going to do when I eventually need to replace the C/V, other than buy a used minivan and take the seats out. I daily a Fiorino which does 54/57MPG. In reality thats about right. Best part is that you can throw anything in the back without a worry. You can even fit two small East German motorcycles in the back if you remove the front wheels 😀 It is slow, loud and the build quality is …well adequate but at the same time cheap to buy, cheap to run and the ride is tolerable. US versions just seem to miss the point. Too expensive for what you actually get with your money. When I read that Ford was moving it to the same plant they make the Maverick, I was really hoping that they’d finally lean into the small van’s potential as an adventure vehicle. An extra inch or two of clearance, some underbody protection, maybe AWD, easy to clean materials (in the rearmost section if nowhere else), and even half the thought that went into the Bronco Sport or Maverick’s interior would have turned it into a spectacular vehicle for active/outdoorsy people who mostly want to get to the trails/campsites with their gear to pursue their hobby rather than having offroading as the hobby. Alas. I think it’s short sighted not to bring over an EV van based on sales numbers alone since they don’t tell the full story. They would easily meet the 6k GVWR tax requirement. This piece of tax code is a large reason why pickup trucks and SUVs make up so much market share in the USA. It’s dumb and should be recodified to emphasize smaller, more efficient vehicles for work purposes but when has American policy ever trended to less is more? When I was in Norway I saw a few of Nissan’s e-NV200s and I totally geeked out over them. One of them would make an awesome little camper but sadly Nissan never sold them in the US.
