World debut for Vauxhall Movano

Vauxhall unveiled its all-new Movano van with ambitions as big as the van. “This is an important van for us as we rebuild Vauxhall’s position in the market,” said Bill Parfitt, chairman of Vauxhall’s owner, GMUK. “The new Movano puts us in at the heavy end of the market. We’re planning to sell 30,000 Movano vans this year.”

The new Movano is available in both front- and rear-wheel drive versions with a gvw up to 4.5 tonnes. There are 29 body styles and 300 variants. Prices start at £20,250.

Revised Premier Service programme for Movano

Bill Parfitt, boss of Vauxhall, said that the company would be rolling out a revised Premier Service programme to cater for the new Movano, including longer opening hours to ensure minimum downtime at its 200 specialist service centres. In addition, Vauxhall dealers would be able to advise small business van operators on the issues of O-licences and driver hours that come with the over 3.5 tonne territory. “O licence inspections would be included in the leasing deals,” added Mr Parfitt.

Isuzu broadens dealer base

Pick-up maker Isuzu is broadening its dealer base as part of plans to extend sales from 1000 units to 4000 units by 2014. William Brown, newly appointed general manager of Isuzu, said that the 2.5-litre Denver Max Crew Cab had really started to take off with small businesses that required the four-wheel drive functionality and Isuzu workaday toughness with a touch of business niceties – such as Bluetooth mobile phone connection. Mr Brown said the pickups would now be on sale at six Isuzu truck dealers, along with specialist agricultural dealers in addition to the conventional Isuzu dealer outlets.

Top loader ladder carrier from TrukRax

Leading independent racking maker, TrukRax, showed its new top loader ladder carrier – for a highly reasonable £795 (ex VAT). Not only is the price attractive, but the whole unit can be operated from the side of the van, rather than the rear, making operation much safer – and easier in restricted parking spaces. The carrier – which can take two ladders – features a two-stage deployment system which presents the ladders at arm’s height and complies with Work At Height and Manual Handling Regulations. The top loader has been designed and manufactured by TrukRax.

Debut for Nissan Pathfinder van

Although the Nissan N200 van might be taking all the plaudits at the moment, Nissan’s new Pathfinder van took the prize for smartest van at the show. Based on the Nissan Pathfinder 4x4, the van has a flat floor with underfloor storage locker to keep valuables out of site. There are two versions – one with blacked out windows, the other with aluminium side panels, pictured. Nissan sees the van as ideal for construction site managers and industrial architects, who need 4x4 capability some of the time, plus also carry portable laptops which can be stowed away securely. Priced from £21,682.

New driver licence check module from Chevin

Fleet management company Chevin Fleet Solutions was demonstrating its latest ‘plug and play’ module for its web-based FleetWave management system, the driver licence module. This module connects to the DVLA’s database to provide a full driver licence check – including endorsements, points, and classes of vehicle that the driver is entitled to drive. “Should one of our drivers be driving with an out of date or the wrong class of licence, then it’s your business that will bear the legal consequences, along with the named driver,” said operations director, Karan Ridgard. “The new module allows your business to gain management control over this vital area.”

TomTom WORK reveals work tracker

TomTom WORK, the business division of the well-known sat device, was in celebratory mood at the show. Jeremy Gould, the firm’s sales manager, confirmed that the company now had 100,000 commercial vehicles actively managed on TomTom WEBFLEET throughout Europe.

“Despite the economic downturn, businesses are still investing in technology to optimise performance,” said Gould. “Using our technology allows businesses to bring their service levels of their mobile workers up while keeping the cost of operations down.”

Among the new products on show were debuts for two low cost devices to help businesses with their time management and mileage recording. Packaged as a remote control, the ‘Remote LINK Working Time’ device enables companies to track the hours of every employee that’s working away from the office, such as furniture removal outfits and plumbers. Mr Gould said it removed the requirement for manual timesheets.

The ‘Remote LINK Logbook’, meanwhile, allows workers to register mileage under a commute, personal trip or work-related journey. Cost is £69 for each device.

Renault’s double debut

Renault’s Kangoo compact van now comes in three lengths – the long-wheelbase Kangoo Maxi has now joined the range, and was making its debut at the show. It goes on sale in a few weeks, and is available to order now. The Kangoo Maxi is 390mm longer than the regular Kangoo Van and offers an additional cubic metre of load volume, taking capacity up to 4.6cu m. The range includes a standard van and a crew van with a second row of seats, seen here. Also on show was the all-new Master large van, and that made for a busy stand – especially as Renault had brought in all its CV dealers for a product briefing on the ever-expanding range. Renault is opening expanded LCV dealers under the PRO+ brand, with bigger workshop bays that can handle the biggest new Masters – the range now has rear-drive vans with a 4.5 tonne GVW and 15cu m of loadspace.

Peugeot backing for innovative U-tail

The most innovative vehicle on show was undoubtedly this extraordinary demountable body adaptation of the Peugeot Boxer. Developed and built in the UK by Roadload, the U-tail conversion is set to be an official Peugeot offering – as well as featuring on Roadload’s own stand, a version of the van took pride of place on the French manufacturer’s stand.

Roadload buys complete Boxer cabs from the Sevel factory in Italy, and fits its own body in Thetford, Norfolk. The body comprises a U-shaped frame, with no floor - each rear wheel has independent suspension and is mounted to the strong steel frame. The frame also contains hydraulic lifting arms that allow a range of bodies to be dropped on to the ground and detached from the vehicle. The chassis-cab can then return to the depot, or pick up another body elsewhere.

The concept should appeal to companies with multiple drops – such as food delivery firms, as it allows the vehicle to keep working while the body is being loaded or unloaded. It takes just seconds to drop off the body, and different bodies can be fitted, including tippers or flat-bed transporters for small vehicles such as lawn mowers or mini diggers. The van is under 3.5 tonnes GVW and can be driven without a tachograph.

Light-hearted Lightfoot helps Fiat gain ground

One of the biggest exhibitors at the Show was a name you might have seen around – Lightfoot Logistics. Well, not quite. The fact that all the signwritten Lightfoot vehicles at the NEC were Fiat Professional vans was a bit of a giveaway. Lightfoot Logistics is the imaginary transport firm that features in Fiat Professional’s innovative sitcom-style advertising campaign, which according to brand manager Paul Godden, is an attempt to break the mould in promoting a van brand.

“Most van advertising is just product-based,” he said. “But we wanted to highlight the real issues that affect a real transport company. What is it like to be a fleet manager?” So the characters in the adverts are based on typical business archetypes, like the finance director who wants to spend as little as possible or the MD who wants the company to be ‘green’.

It’s working too, as Fiat Professional is starting to gain a foothold in major companies such as Royal mail, Boots and Marks & Spencer. “We were doing very well in the ‘retail’ part of the van market, but now we’re gaining ground with the big fleets too,” Godden said. Pride of place in the Lightfoot Logistics 'fleet' was the impressive new Doblo Cargo (pictured), which is now on sale.

Downsizing boost for Bipper

After a slow start, sales of the little Peugeot Bipper have started to gather real momentum, with major customers such as the Royal Mail adding the van to their fleets.

“The first six weeks of Bipper sales was very hard work,” said Phil Robson, Peugeot’s fleet sales director. “But the recession has been our biggest sales enabler in the marketplace, as business buyers have had to reappraise every line of expenditure and cost.”

So while van operators had specified a bigger van for the few occasions they had to carry a larger load, Peugeot now encourages them to buy a smaller and more economical van, eliminating the “just in case” need. Instead, Peugeot offers low-cost rental deals on larger vehicles. Robson also encourages buyers to view CO2 figures as a measure of fuel economy, not just a measure of environmental friendliness.

VW Amarok

Ranger’s biggest new competitor will be the VW Amarok, which will go on sale in the UK next month. VW hasn’t had a pick-up since the Golf-based Caddy, but the Argentina-built Amarok is a bigger 1-tonne pick-up which will come with single and double cabs, and a range of liferstyle accessories, like this window top. This version of the Amarok is powered by VW’s familiar 163PS 2.0-litre turbodiesel, driving all four wheels.

Vauxhall still upbeat on Luton as Renault talks rumble on

The future of Vauxhall’s Luton van plant should become clearer within the next couple of months, according to Vauxhall managing director Bill Parfitt. The plant is contracted to build the Renault Trafic-based Vauxhall Vivaro until 2013, but GM and Renault are still locked in confidential discussions as to whether this arrangement will continue into the next-generation version of the van.

Parfitt said discussions with Renault were “positive in a number of areas”, and clearly the relationship with Renault will continue for some time on larger vans – the new Movano and Renault Master, both launched at the show, are pretty much identical vehicles. “Renault has been a very good partner,” he added.

He said the recently announced Renault-Mercedes partnership will have an effect on the discussion, but it does not rule out a new GM-Renault deal. “We do have a plan B and a plan C,” he said. He praised Luton’s efficiency and noted that it was GM’s only LCV plant in Europe. “We also need a replacement for Combo and Astravan from the end of 2011,” he said. One possibility was to build Combo and Vivaro replacements both at Luton – the plant is capable of handling multiple platforms.

Astravan is still popular in the UK, even though the current version is now based on the previous-generation Astra. Parfitt is hopeful that a new Astravan can be developed from the forthcoming estate version of the new Astra, which is built at Ellesmere Port. Combo replacement could be sourced from another automaker or developed jointly with a partner, he said.

GM last year sold around 100,000 vans in Europe – around a third of these in the UK. But this is a long way short of the 300,000 units that it has shifted in a peak market. “We need to get back up to those volumes,” said Parfitt.

Nissan moving toward independent range

Nissan’s van range will be completely separate from Renault’s range by 2013 – though there will still be plenty of component-sharing between the alliance partners, said Tony Lewis, Nissan’s UK head of CV operations.

Nissan has already replaced the Kangoo-based Kubistar with NV200, and next year a new large van will replace the Interstar, Nissan’s version of the Master. While the new Master as increased payload of up to 4.5 tonnes, Nissan already covers this area of the light truck market with Cabstar, which will continue, Lewis said. So Interstar replacement is unlikely to go above 3.5 tonnes. The final piece in the jigsaw will be a replacement for the Trafic-based Primastar in 2013.

All these new vans will use ‘NV’ model names and will be developed for world markets, though European supplies will be produced in Barcelona, and will make heavy use of Renault components such as diesel engines. Larger engines could co me from Daimler in future as part of a wide-ranging alliance between the German company and Renault-Nissan. This alliance will also see Renault supplying a small van based on the Kangoo to Mercedes, which currently does not have a van below the Vito.