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GM To Source Small Panel Van From Nissan For United States And Canadian Markets

General Motors and Nissan have officially announced today that the companies have signed an agreement that will involve Nissan providing its small cargo vehicles to General Motors, which GM will sell as a Chevrolet in the United States and Canadian markets. It will be called the Chevrolet City Express, and will be based on the Nissan NV200.

The City Express will begin sale in the fall of 2014 as a 2015 model, and will take on the Ford Transit Connect in the small utility van segment. Pricing for the City Express will be announced at a later date.

In October of 2012, GM filed a trademark application for “Citi Express,” which was an early indicator of the cargo van’s arrival. Obviously the name’s changed since the original filing.

 

Former staff.

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Comments

  1. I disagree with this move. Why not use an Opel? GM is far too big a company to be rebadging cars from another company.

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    1. Completely agreed, Justin. GM needs its own platforms and powertrains in any and all segments in which it competes. They’re big enough to do this themselves globally (like Ford) , and I don’t understand the point behind badging up vehicles from other manufacturers.

      Let’s hope this is a temporary move as The General fully recovers, and it will have its own for the next generation. Problem with that scenario is, competitors making their own will have that much more time to develop, learn, and improve their offerings… and GM will be stuck starting from scratch.

      Reply
      1. Yeah, but these Nissans are good vans. The motors run forever. There is no negatives here that I can see. It will cut Ford’s sales, gain extra sales for Gm, and allow more selection between other companies.

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        1. Run forever? Nissan’s quality record under Renault is pitiful. Just about every powertrain combo they make has had some sort of problem or issue. Should of just stretched the Orlando’s roof and there you go.

          Reply
  2. Very dangerous in my opinion all these different vehicles being given the bow tie to wear, yes if done right badge engineering can work (the odd car or two cleverly merged into a range) however this is getting silly with everything and anything getting the bow tie. Yes I can understand Chevy wishing to go global, but its a slow process of building up a great reputation in all markets. GM needs a budget brand below Chevy so as not to damage it’s reputation & confuse buyers as to what niche & where in the market place Chevy sits.

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  3. Me no likey this. My only hope is that it will be different enough so that it’s not easily recognizable as a Nissan. At least that way we can pretend it’s ours….

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  4. GM, Y U NO ORLANDO PANEL?!

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  5. “Citi Express” makes me think of this Citi Bank…

    Those living in the direct shadow of this bank, in New York, should already be familiar with the passenger version of the Nissan NV200 as the new certified NY taxi.

    GM, i.e. Opel/Vauxhall already to cooperate with Renault-Nissan in the area of light commercial vehicles, producing in common what are called the Opel/Vauxhall Movano = Renault Master = Nissan Interstar (or NV400) as the largest vehicle, then the Opel/Vivaro Vivaro = Renault Trafic = Nissan Primastar. The production is distributed among the Luton (GB) plant of Vauxhall/Opel, the Batilly plant of Renault, and the Barcelona plant of Nissan.

    The Nissan NV200 measures 4,400 mm (173.2 in) long in its 2010-2012, and 4.729 mm (186.2 in) in its 2013 model.

    The length of the Vivaro/Trafic/Primastar are
    * SWB: 4,782 mm (188.3 in)
    * LWB: 5,182 mm (204.0 in)
    * Regular Pickup: 5,038 mm (198.3 in)
    * Crew Pickup: 5,438 mm (214.1 in)

    The Master/Movano/Interstar can have lengths from 5048 to 6848 mm.

    In the size class of the Nissan NV200 = Chevrolet City Express, Opel/Vauxhall offer a rebadged FIAT Dobló as Opel Combo.

    It seems that the market for light commercial vehicles is too difficult to shoulder for a single auto maker, forcing them to cooperate, or to give up offering such vehicles.

    Reply
  6. Never before, and there never will be again, a better, more badass van than the GMC Safari. More specifically the GMC Safari that my family used to own lol, and I think is still sitting on our farm’s property somewhere, and I bet it will still run
    Lets go through the list:
    Rwd- check

    …What else is there!?

    Actually, so yes, it had rwd and it was awesome. But that 4.3L V6 Vortec with 4spd auto were bullet proof, want me to prove it? I’ll go find our old van and see if a 556 will do it harm. It had damn near, if not more than 350,000 of hard driving, towing, and hauling Kilometres on it. We definitely went well above it’s max tow and hauling rating,
    The ABS went out in ours and I don’t think it ever had traction control, plus shitty all season tires while driving in Ontario snow belt, you can bet it was a handful, and so much fun.

    It could do 1080 donuts, yes three full circles, continuously with ease. I was doing a break stand in it one time and it got a gnarly wheel hop going. Didn’t even phase it. I credit it for teaching me how to learn to drive, nothing like getting a 4000lbs van with an extremely high CofG sideways. Or once the accessory/serpentine belt failed, so I lost power to pretty much everything; power steering gone; break pressure, nope. This was in the winter, and again, no abs no traction control, and I fought it home, 20km. Memories.

    It sat 7 people when both benches were in, and still had room for gear. Road trips were amazing. I once beached it in the heart of Algonquin Park with 4 friends, our camping trip turned into getting the van unstuck. We took all our gear out, two canoes off the roof, seats out, then it started to pour rain. I was dry, I was sitting drivers seat… everything else, fully saturated.

    It was not a hit with the girls in high school, granted, but it provided its own sorts of fun.

    Reply
    1. Oh and after many years of using worn out keys, it could also be started with a well placed slotted screw driver. And sometimes when you thought you were in Drive, it was actually Reverse. Neutral didnt always clock in for work when it was supposed to and the gauge cluster gear indicator was bipolar.
      And my brother once clipped a Canada Goose (around 10lbs) with the passenger side A-pillar and roof rack while doing about 110km/h going down the 401. Imagine a feather pillow full of spaghetti, with extra bolognese sauce, exploding… the result is what the roof of the van looked like. It is amazing how resilient ‘spaghetti’ that has been baked on in the July sun is to a 3000psi gas powered pressure washer.

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  7. This was not a move they wanted to make but the sales of the new small Ford have been taking their lunch money.

    GM was unprepared for the success the Ford has seen. This was more a matter of the lack of man power and time as they could not wait any longer for this.

    I too expected the Opel but there may be issues on certification, size or ability to export enough of them at a profitable price.

    Ford had been importing theirs from Turkey and would ship them with windows and seats in the back to beat the USA tariff. They would remove the seats here and remove the glass as needed. If a passenger vehicle no Tariff.

    I see this as a limited program and GM will address it in a couple years as they have so many other fish in the fryer already.

    GM still has a hell of a lot to do and the time and man power to do it is limited. They will get there but much still has to be done on more important programs. The SUV models were delayed already to better into the trucks.

    Reply
    1. The Opel Combo, which you are probably referring to, is a rebadged Fiat Dobló.

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  8. Looks cheap….

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  9. Holden really needs this too! Or at least another Opel van.

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  10. I would have rather seen them use something in house too, but at least this van shown here is not as homely(read ugly) as the full size Nissan van.

    Reply
  11. Funny how it’s a Nissan NV200 but they managed to slap on the required GM
    crease in the front fascia and hood!

    I just don’t like these deals where they desperately try to fill a gap by tacking
    together a deal with a competitor. Remember the Geo debacle and those
    Isuzu Chevy LUVs?

    It’s possible as has been suggested here, that GM could incorporate a
    budget brand – say resurrect the GEO nameplate, and fill it with budget
    offerings like Spark and this van…. But I don’t think that would work
    entirely to GM’s advantage in the long run.

    GM is tooling around Canada in a couple of rebadged Renault fullsized
    FWD vans. This is another lame move in my opinion. Fiat/Chrysler rolled
    out the goofey looking FWD Promaster hackjob of Fiat’s Euro van, and
    do they really believe it’ll stand up in utility and reliability to Mercedes/
    Freighliner’s Sprinter and Ford’s new International-platform T-Series ( Transit )?

    Ford’s smaller Transit-Connect will have a cargo version and a people mover
    version they insist is NOT a minivan ( ?! ) – but it makes the first generation
    Transit-Connect look like a toy. I just don’t think the NV200 will compete well
    in this segment and to think Nissan will profit from each one sold….

    Reply
    1. “tooling around Canada in a couple of rebadged Renault fullsized FWD vans”

      Is this the same Renault Master and/or Renault Trafic which are the same as the Opel/Vauxhall Movano and Vivaro.

      Mind you, the Nissan NV200 aka Chevrolet City Express is smaller than those vehicles from the cooperation of Opel and Renault-Nissan marketed in Europe and beyond (e.g. in South Africa: http://media.gm.com/content/media/za/en/opel/vehicles/vivaro/2009.html )

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      1. I’m aware of this. In my post I do not compare NV200/CityVan to large vans.

        North America has not had a competitive large commercial van/ RV platform
        since the 1960s due to the insane Chicken Tax passed by our Congress in that
        era and effective still today.

        Thus, the Renault global van will have to be built here, or disassembled and
        reassembled to be sold in this market.

        The CityExpress will be a direct competitor to Ford’s next-gen Transit-Connect, and
        not it’s American-built Transit ( or T-Series ) which is our version of the latest-gen
        global Transit.

        My post comments re: how lame it is for GM to market a French FWD cargo van,
        as it is Fiat/Chrysler to sell it’s global FWD van here when our domestic
        manufacturers screwed themselves into not being able to import vans rather
        than build them here. Rather than resorting to protectionist politics, they should’ve
        just built a good, efficient commercial van here in the first place!

        Neither the Renault/GM, nor Fiat/RAM van hold a candle to the current Mercedes
        Sprinter now available here.

        In the small van category, it’s sad GM has to resort to buying Nissans to fill out it’s
        available models.

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        1. On the other hand – in the large van segment, the new American-made
          Transit fullsized RWD van should compete well with the Sprinter since
          it finally will be made here, thus saving a lot of money as not to have to
          be disassembled and reassembled. The gas engine options for the Transit
          will also be a boon to sales because diesel is expensive here.

          Reply
  12. Clearly Nissan knows its strengths and understands GMs strengths in the grand sceam of things. Nissan needs larger production to drive better product, understands now that commercial vehicles are going to be purchased from American brands over foreign brands. Nissan did not until recently have a pressence in commercial vans. This ptoduct is distinct enough from the Nissan where they would not be confused. Good move in short term on GM’s part, however it would not have taken a fortune teller or rocket scientist10 or 15 years ago to tell you that these European style Vans would be the way to go in the future over the cluncky ancient Vans GM and Ford have had. I remember reading a European magazine thinking why is this not here at least 12 to 15 years ago… Yet again the failings of old GM show through and the lack of utilizing its global recources to develop a world vehicle to meet its global needs. On the other hand maybe GM would not have competed well in this arena globaly so utilizing other resources to fill specific market needs would make sense. Its interesting when we buy a vehicle or even a computer we think every component must be made by that said company… Take a Dell computer, I hsve always bought Dell because its an American company and they manufacture in the states. But at the end of the day Dell sources components and compiles them into what we purchase. Is an automobile manufacturer not doing exactly that sorcing components for an end product… At the end of the day the market will tell GM if this will work or not and GM will have a foundation to build on… GM is going to Nissan and saying here is what we want we like your architecture but we need xy and z, you can build it for us in your facility in Mexico and we will reap the benefits of filling a void our dealerships are screaming for us to fill. One concern though is GM has to make this vehicle there own and own it, no compromise, people need to have a clear image of this being a chevrolet, I would even say down to the engine… The engine, dash ect…should be GM all the way. There should be nothing leading me back to this maybe being a Nissan… Another example: lets say I manufacture RV’s I most likely source the frame, engine yada yada. I may even use the front Cab but in this cas lets say I dont. I am still sourcing the foundational components of the vehicle is that not what GM is doing here, what is so shocking about this… Hope this brings to light an alternative way of looking at this besides all the negative comments posted…

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  13. What was the joint venture between Toyota and GM? I’m thinking NUMMI or something and they rebadged Toyotas for the Chevy Nova didn’t they? Guess when you can’t compete you join up. This shouldn’t be too bad of an outfit I’m thinking.

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    1. Yupp, the now Tesla-owned NUMMI. Toyota Matrix and the Pontiac Vibe were the last fruits of that collaboration.

      Reply
  14. @ Yabadabadoo:

    The reason they haven’t brought over a global version of any van is the U.S.
    Chicken Tax from the 1960s. This was a protectionist tax the U.S. Congress
    pushed through to keep foreign-sourced chickens from undermining the
    American poultry farmer. Deep inside that bill was a foreign van provision
    obviously placed there by politicians who’se pockets had been lined by
    U.S. auto/truck manufacturers. The provision banned foreign built commercial
    or recreational trucks to be shipped and sold here in N.A. without payment of
    horrendous tariffs. This is why we’ve suffered with ancient Ford E-Series and
    GM vans for 20-35 years.

    The big question is – where will this NV200/ Chevy City van be built? I believe
    the answer will be in Smyrna, Tennessee where Nissan Leafs are now being
    produced for this market. Ford’s small Transit-Connects are built in Turkey,
    shipped here with seats and windows ( to get past tax on commercial vans ),
    then the windows and seats are removed here so they can be sold as
    work vans. I belive next-gen Transit-Connect will be built in Spain and have
    to perform similar manuevers to be sold here as a work van. Sadly, the
    manufacturers had punished themselves, as other manufacturers with
    superior product just found ways to sell their vans here at huge MSRPs. Like
    Mercedes, whose Sprinter is built in Germany, disassembled, shipped
    and reassembled in S. Carolina by Mercedes’ White-Freighliner factory.
    Now do you know why a stripper Sprinter shorty cargo van runs $36,000?
    After 35 years, Ford finally decided to build it’s newest large global van ( Transit )
    in St. Louis with gas options more suited to N.A. needs.

    Reply

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