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

Iveco is confident the introduction of the eight-speed automatic Hi-matic transmission into its 3.5t Daily will be a game-changer for the van in the UK market.

The brands’ two big supermarket customers, Tesco and Asda, have already ordered the system as a replacement for the far more rudimentary six-speed semi-auto Agile gearbox they currently use.

The supermarkets prefer automatic transmissions because they cut down on workshop bills caused by the battering clutches take from drivers using manual gearboxes.

Tesco currently has 4200 Daily vans on its fleet – while Asda has just over half this number.

Iveco claims more than 50% of Dailys sold in the UK will feature the Hi-matic transmission, which it says delivers fuel savings of 4% compared to Agile.

The manufacturer is offering Hi-matic with its 2.3-litre diesel engines with outputs of 106 and 126hp but, curiously, not with the more powerful 2.3 146hp derivative.

It is, however, available with both the 170 and 205hp versions of the larger 3.0-litre engine.

Iveco’s UK product manager Martin Flach reckons nearly all home delivery fleets will opt for Hi-matic vans over the six-speed manual alternative and says the technology also gives Iveco a chance to get the Daily into blue light sectors, which favour autos. Flach predicts that in a year’s time the system will be the default choice, with only a minority of customers specifying manual versions of the Daily.

Developed with ZF, the Hi-matic transmission is the first eight speed automatic to be offered with a large van but Iveco is keen to point out that it has already been utilised in premium brand cars from Jeep, Maserati, Bentley and Rolls Royce.

Himatic comes with a choice of Eco or Power modes, the former is designed to be suitable for the majority of assignments while the latter holds on to gears for a fraction longer to enhance performance and may be handy, for example, when climbing steep hills with a heavy load on board. A third option, manual mode, permits sequential shifting via the gear stick.

We put the Himatic through its paces in the medium-wheelbase, medium roof height (H2) Daily 35S13 model, which is powered by the 2.3 126hp unit and, in common with the rest of the line-up, is rear-wheel drive.

The van’s 1420kg payload was loaded to half its capacity and we found the engine’s power output coped perfectly well with ECO mode selected. If you do feel the need, switching to Power Mode is simply done by tapping the shift lever, which resembles a manual gear stick, and the slight increase in responsiveness and heightened ability to change gears at high speeds could be reassuring when overtaking.

We found Iveco’s enthusiasm for Himatic to be justified – the system is consummately smooth with the shifts between gears seamless. There is none of the lurching that can accompany the changes between gears on semi-auto systems. The eight-speed unit performs serenely in all conditions and it proved to be impossible to knock our test van out of its comfort zone whether we were crawling along in urban traffic, slowing and accelerating across roundabouts or driving on dual carriageways.