What Van? Britain's biggest and best van buyers' guide

Being based on the Renault Kangoo range, which includes the electric E-Tech derivative – the winner of the What Van? Compact Van of the Year Award for 2023 – means the Nissan Townstar EV comes with a strong pedigree.

The Townstar replaced Nissan’s previous compact vans the E-NV200 and NV200, which were not based on the Kangoo, in December 2022.

It is available with the same electric and petrol drivetrains as the Kangoo but Nissan is not marketing the Townstar with the 1.5-litre diesel offered with the Renault van.

The petrol engine is a 1.3-litre, 130hp unit, and the EV is equipped with a 122hp motor and a 45kWh battery, allowing a claimed range of up to 183 miles on the WLTP combined cycle.

Nissan launched the Townstar in L1 guise before releasing a long-wheelbase L2 version in July this year.

With a vehicle length of 4,910mm, the L2 features a 4.3m³ load bay capacity – a 1.0m³ increase on the L1 – and features a wider side door, at 831mm, allowing a Europallet to be loaded. At 171 miles, it’s battery range is shorter than the L1, however.

Prices for a petrol Townstar, excluding VAT, start at £19,475 for a short-wheelbase Visia and rise to £24,425 for a long-wheelbase Tekna+.

Prices for an electric Townstar excluding VAT and the government’s plug-in van grant start at £29,945 for a short-wheelbase Visia and rises as high as £35,845 for a long-wheelbase Tekna+. There is a choice of four trim levels, Visia, Acenta, Tekna and Tekna+.

Driven here is the Tekna+ with the L1 body style. As with most electric vans, the first thing you notice when getting behind the wheel is the instant acceleration from a standing start, which comes in handy when nipping into gaps in busy urban traffic.

The single-speed auto-transmission lever offers the driver a choice of ‘P’ for park, ‘R’ for reverse, ‘D’ for drive and ‘B 1,2 and 3’ for regenerative braking, but even the most extreme ‘B3’ mode is not too severe and does not allow for one pedal driving as you still have to relay on the brakes to come to a halt.

Precise steering, light in traffic and tightening up as you gather speed, contribute to the impressive performance and handling of the Tekna+, while refinement and
ride quality are of a high standard too. The silent powertrain means the only noise entering the well-upholstered cabin comes from the wheels on the road and wind at higher speeds. The suspension, although firm, suppresses jolts from speed humps and potholes.

The cabin offers ample storage provisions, including a glove box (not lockable), an open shelf on top of the dashboard and a large central stowage box.

Nissan’s Intelligent All View Monitor 360 together with front, rear and side parking sensors allow the driver to tackle tight manoeuvres with confidence and the Tekna+ is well endowed with ADAS such as adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning and lane keep assist, intelligent brake assist, blind spot detection with intervention and driver attention alert.

The load bay in our van was comprehensively clad in ply and a full width solid bulkhead protects the cab from any items not securely tied down. Twin rear doors plus near- and off-side side doors make accessing the load bed easy. Maximum payload, however, is a fairly modest 574kg.