Commercial van sales in the US are up 23% in the first half of 2021, trailing the overall market which is up 29%. As a result, the share of commercial vans of the overall US car market is down to 2.5% of the US car market, from 2.6% in 2020. Small vans are up 37% in the first six months while full-sized vans are up 20%.
Traditional class leader Ford Transit sees a 6% drop in deliveries, which drops its share of the segment by more than seven percentage points to 24.9%, the lowest since its launch in 2014. Surprisingly, the Chevrolet Express is up 32%, despite being virtually unchanged since 2003. Its sibling model GMC Savana does even better at +58%. The RAM ProMaster was the #2 selling van in the United States in the second quarter, outselling the Express by 5,600 units and closing the year-to-date gap to just 420 deliveries. The ProMaster is also the best performing large van with sales up 66%. The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter leapfrogs the Ford E-Series for fourth place while the Nissan NV van is up 42% but remains the slowest selling large van in the USA.
In the compact commercial van part of the segment, which accounts for 20% of total van sales in the US (up from 18% in the first half of 2020), Ford’s dominance is also shrinking as the Transit Connect is up just 18% while its closes two rivals show multiples of that growth rate. The Nissan NV200 is up 58% and the RAM ProMaster City almost doubles up at +94%. Altogether, Ford has a 41.3% share of the commecial van market in the United States with its three models, down from 50.2% in the first half of 2020 and from 48.1% in all of 2020. The Mercedes-Benz Metris is down 4% and remains a niche player at just 1.7% share
US commercial van sales 2021 – first half
| Van segment | 2021-H1 | 2020-H1 | Change | 2021 Share | 2020 Share | |
| 1 | Ford Transit | 51.713 | 54.780 | -6% | 24,9% | 32,4% |
| 2 | Chevrolet Express | 29.429 | 22.315 | 32% | 14,2% | 13,2% |
| 3 | Ram ProMaster | 29.009 | 17.498 | 66% | 13,9% | 10,3% |
| 4 | Mercedes-Benz Sprinter | 18.170 | 14.582 | 25% | 8,7% | 8,6% |
| 5 | Ford E-series | 17.335 | 15.900 | 9% | 8,3% | 9,4% |
| 6 | GMC Savana | 11.291 | 7.166 | 58% | 5,4% | 4,2% |
| 7 | Nissan NV van | 9.372 | 6.616 | 42% | 4,5% | 3,9% |
| 8 | Ford Transit Connect | 16.940 | 14.325 | 18% | 8,1% | 8,5% |
| 9 | Nissan NV200 | 12.572 | 7.977 | 58% | 6,0% | 4,7% |
| 10 | Ram ProMaster City | 8.593 | 4.418 | 94% | 4,1% | 2,6% |
| 11 | Mercedes-Benz Metris | 3.542 | 3.698 | -4% | 1,7% | 2,2% |
| Segment total | 207.966 | 169.275 | 23% |
Source: Manufacturers.