The Small Cargo Vans segment has grown 37.6% in 2015 to 94,167 sales thanks to three new entrants in the past three years and continued improvement of the segment leader. The first generation Ford Transit Connect basically started the segment in the United States in 2009 and has seen its sales grow every year since. The second generation Connect increased sales another 21% last year to top 50,000 sales for the first time and thus hold on to more than 55% of the segment, a figure which will continue to drop as the competition is getting better established.
The Nissan NV200 followed in 2013 and saw its sales grow by another 29% despite having a new competitor rolling off the same assembly line. In late 2014 Chevrolet introduced the City Express, which is nothing more than a rebadged NV200 as General Motors wanted a quick answer to Ford’s success in the segment, as it already missed the opportunity of replacing its classic full-sized Express Van with a Euro-van like Ford has done with the Transit. The Chevrolet City Express is in fourth place in 2015, not far behind the RAM ProMaster City, a rebadged European Fiat Doblo, in its first year on the US market.
The ProMaster City also replaces the RAM Cargo Van, a commercial version of the Dodge Grand Caravan, which is being phased out as the model is replaced by the Chrysler Pacifica.
Note: clicking on the model name opens the sales data page for that model; clicking year in the legend turns the display for that year on/off