Nissan Is Reportedly Abandoning The US Commercial And Passenger Van Market

A new report is making the rounds the claims Nissan has decided to no longer sell its line of commercial and passenger vans in the United States. Instead of offering commercial and passenger vans for fleet sales, the report claims that the automaker will push sedans and SUVs for fleet sales. Nissan is said to be ending production of the full-size NV vans at its Canton Mississippi plant and the compact NV200 van produced in Mexico next summer.

Factors that impacted the decision Nissan has made include the fact that Ford dominates commercial vans in the United States. Ford owns most of the market, having sold a quarter million Transit and Transit Connect vans last year. Nissan moved only 39,000 of its NV and NV200 vans during the same period.

Looking at market share more specifically, Ford sells nearly half of all the large commercial vans, with Chevy taking another quarter of the market, leaving Nissan with only 4.9 percent. Another issue that is pointed to as a reason for the demise of Nissan vans is that its pickup, the Titan, isn't a strong seller. The report indicates that many companies want to buy their trucks and vans from the same company.

Nissan's new Business Advantage plan is a revamp of its previous commercial sales operations. While in the past, only a few models were offered for commercial sales, the Business Advantage plan will market all Nissan vehicles to government and business fleets, except for the GT-R. Considering the GT-R is a sports car with a six-figure price tag, that makes sense.

Commercial buyers will only have to buy two vehicles through the Business Advantage Program to get a volume discount and other perks. Nissan dealers are unlikely to be happy about eliminating commercial vans, as some dealers made significant investments to service commercial vehicles.