Nissan Is Leaving the U.S. Van Segment

Amid the restructuring happening within the Nissan headquarters in and out of America, the Japanese automaker is making another significant change in its business operations. The company is leaving the van segment in the United States.

Just a few weeks ago, Nissan announced its plans to cut at least 20% of its global lineup to save no less than $2.8 billion in costs. It turns out some of the models heading to the chopping block are from the company’s commercial vehicle division.

While it has relatively not been long since Nissan entered the van segment 10 years ago, it has made the decision to forgo this market altogether.

“We don’t want to go more in the business of vans in the U.S.,” a source from Nissan shared. “We will exit.”

Nissan’s van lineup includes the compact NV200 and the full-size NV based on the Titan, both of which are sold in cargo and passenger van configurations. The two models were launched in 2009 and 2011, respectively, and were part of the company’s attempt to get a chunk of the market that was dominated by Detroit brands.

Despite being two decades younger than its counterparts, however, Nissan failed to capture a solid market with the NV200 and NV. This showed in the brand’s measly eight percent of market share in 2019, accounting for less than 39,000 vehicles for the entire van lineup. Moreover, the Nissan NV, in its best year, only sold 20,022 units in the U.S.

According to reports, Nissan is also ultimately ending production of the NV although the final date has not been decided.

“Nissan continuously considers a number of opportunities to streamline the product portfolio and drive efficiencies within our manufacturing operations. We will provide updates as available,” a spokesperson for Nissan told online publication The Drive in an email.