Commercial Vehicle Show 2023 opens its doors

Date: Thursday, April 20, 2023 | Author: James Dallas

The NEC in Birmingham opened its doors to the 2023 Commercial Vehicle Show on 18 April.

The UK’s leading light commercial vehicle manufacturer Ford once more took the largest stand at the event, occupying its customary position in Hall 5 of the exhibition centre.

The blue oval brand revealed its electric E-Transit Courier, pictured, alongside ICE versions of the compact van. It also gave a UK show debut to the medium-sized E-Transit Custom and displayed its new Ranger pick-up truck in Wildtrak grade.

Nissan returned to the CV Show and gave pride of place to its new compact van the Townstar Electric, which is based on its Alliance partner Renault’s Kangoo E-Tech.

SAIC-owned Maxus unveiled its eDeliver 7 panel van at the NEC. The medium van will sit between the eDeliver 3 and eDeliver 9 in the brand’s line-up. For the third year running, Maxus presented only electric vehicles on its stand.

Iveco gave a UK debut to its electric large van the eDaily. To demonstrate the van’s 3.5-tonne towing capacity Iveco displayed a 3.5-tonne eDaily coupled to a trailer loaded with an electric JCB digger. Also on show were a 3.5-tonne eDaily chassis cab and a 7.2-tonne twin-wheel box van.

Another highlight of the show’s opening day was Watt Electric Vehicles Company (WEVC) giving a global debut to its fully-electric prototype chassis cab, codenamed eCV1, on the Etrux stand. Etrux designed and built the lightweight body fitted to the eCV1 on display.

The vehicle can be built to either 3.5 or 4.25-tonnes with respective payloads of 1,750 or 2,500kg, according to Neil Yates, CEO of WEVC.

It has a central driving position and will go into production in 2025 with up to 5,000 units being built per year.

The CV Show also features a live theatre programme with two stages hosting expert speakers from across the LCV sector.

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