I just was thinking about this today. As I drove around in my daily commute the one thing I always notice is the prominence of the white panel work van. My company has about a dozen of these. Every Service Technician for my company drives around in a Ford or Chevy panel van. Most don't need anywhere near the amount of space they have in it. So, that got me to my thought. How cool would it be for Toyota to make a stab at this market. Make a Prius V with no rear doors, or simply one sliding rear door and no rear windows. This would be almost like how Chevy has made a panel van version of the HHR. The batteries could be moved to the passenger foot well area to give a nice flat space for cargo. This would be a great alternative to the large work panel van. Great for technicians and workers that need to haul around a lot of tools and gear, but don't need all the space of a full size work van. I know I'm just spitting in the wind here, but I'd gather that of all the work vans out on the road, 50% don't need all the space they currently have. They could make due with the amount of cargo space. To get this large amount of fleet vehicles from driving Vans getting MPG values in the teens to in the high 30s and 40s would be great for businesses' bottom lines.
last time i checked.. ford connect vans and such still only get mid 20's on the mpg scale. i have a prius and a trailer that i run construction with... your idea is a good one as there would be a lot of people who would pick one up. at worse it would probably get 30 to 35mpg...
Not a bad idea. It might actually be easier (read: cheaper for Toyota) to just keep the current layout and put an enclosed box where the back seats would be. They get a flat floor and att he same time, a small box (or two small boxes). Toyota can even make them removable and call them "tool boxes"
Well, they added the Transit Connect. Better than a pick-up but not particularly efficient in stop-and-go. (Unless you pay over $50k for the EV). Very popular in Europe. It's also harder to steal stuff from a van than a pick-up.
Chomp, chomp, chomp. The problem is margin, I think. Both eating other van profits and profits on alternative hybrids. (I think they are still limited by battery production).
I didn't think they made a Sienna panel van any more after the 2nd gen came out. I think battery production is the limiting factor. If the Transit Connect proves to be a good seller, then Toyota would have no qualms about throwing in their version of it. Again, on the Prius platform and spread the cost out. Hopefully they payload limit is enough for most city delivery trucks. It should be.
