The Transit Connect's success may signal a new age for the commercial van

The Ford Transit Connect has been a big seller as an urban business vehicle. (Ford)

The Transit Connect, Ford's award-winning delivery van, is typically used to haul goods such as food and paint. But its success is also building buzz for the business vehicle, leading to a new wave of planned commercial vehicles.

Nissan will add a commercial van this year, while Chrysler may use models from Fiat as the core of a new business fleet. General Motors is also studying a global truck design to enter the category, people familiar with the planning say.

Nissan will start selling the NV commercial vehicle in North America this year. (Nissan)

"Now would be a good time to be coming into this market," says Chris Fisher, an analyst at Power Systems Research in Eagan, Minn. "A lot of the increased sales volume will be driven by increased consumer spending in the latter half of the year, which should continue into 2011."

Commercial vans typically account for about 2 percent of U.S. vehicle sales, but consultant IHS Global Insight forecasts van sales will more than double by 2014 to 417,456, with North American production at almost twice 2009's levels.

Ford executives say the Transit Connect may help kindle the same kind of buzz that fed the pickup boom of the 1990s. Web site Edmunds.com says online page views for the Transit Connect rose fivefold in the week after it was named North American Truck of the Year at the Detroit auto show in January.

"There are a few stories of people walking into the showroom, thinking it was a cool vehicle and ordering one," says Len Deluca, Ford's director of commercial truck sales and marketing. "A retired couple in Atlanta came in and said, 'I'll take it,' and drove off in one."

European sales of the Turkish-built van began in 2002, and U.S. sales totaled 8,834 last year after Ford brought it to the U.S. in July. Prices start at $21,475.

Nissan's NV2500 van is derived from the 7-year-old Titan pickup, and is scheduled to reach showrooms in the fourth quarter, says Joe Castelli, vice president of commercial vehicles and fleet. The NV2500, which was unveiled last month, will be assembled at the Canton, Miss., truck factory now getting a $118 million overhaul.

"We see a good opportunity," Castelli says. He says Nissan is also considering bringing a smaller commercial van from Europe after seeing the Transit Connect's success.

GM is studying Ford's van and others to determine whether the Detroit-based automaker needs its own entry, say the people familiar with the plans, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private. No decision has been made, they say.

Chrysler vans based on Fiat commercial-vehicle designs should start arriving in the U.S. in 2012. "We're going to be benefiting from the van applications that Fiat has that we can bring into the United States," says Fred Diaz, head of the Dodge Ram pickup brand.