

The Japanese also produced many vans based on the American flat nose model, but also minivans which for the American market have generally evolved to the long-wheelbase front-wheel drive form. Japan Toyota HiAce cab over vanĮarly Japanese vans include the Kurogane Baby, Mazda Bongo, and the Toyota LiteAce. Some of the popular vans include Maruti Suzuki Omni and the Maruti Suzuki Eeco. Vans are also extensively used for commercial purposes and office cabs.
#Passenger vans full
In India, the van is one of the most common modes of transport and is often used for transporting school children to and from schools, usually when parents, especially working parents, are often too busy to pick their children up from school or when school buses are full and unable to accommodate other children. The American usage of "van" which describes a cargo box trailer or semi-trailer is used rarely, if ever, in Australia. The British term people mover is also used in Australian English to describe a passenger van. The term van can also sometimes be used interchangeably with what Australians usually call a "caravan", which in the U.S. In Australian English, the term van is commonly used to describe a minivan, a passenger minibus, or an Australian panel van as manufactured by companies such as Holden and Ford at various times.Ī full-size van used for commercial purposes is also known as a "van" in Australia however, a passenger vehicle with more than seven or eight seats is more likely to be called a "minibus". While the word now applies everywhere to boxy cargo vans, other applications are found to a greater or lesser extent in different English-speaking countries some examples follow: The word van has slightly different, but overlapping, meanings in different forms of English. A caravan, meaning one wagon, had arisen as an extension, or corruption, of a caravan meaning a convoy of multiple wagons. The words caravan with the same meaning has been used since the 1670s. The earliest records of a van as a vehicle in English are in the mid-19th century meaning a covered wagon for transporting goods the earliest reported record of such was in 1829. Van meaning a type of vehicle arose as a contraction of the word caravan. Word origin and usage Roger Fenton's photographic van, Crimea, 1855 Postal services and courier companies use large step vans to deliver packages. Specially equipped vans are used by television stations as mobile studios.

Larger vans with only front seats are often used for business purposes, to carry goods and equipment. Larger vans with passenger seats are used for institutional purposes, such as transporting students. Mini MPVs, compact MPVs, and MPVs are all small vans usually used for transporting people in small quantities.

The smallest vans, microvans, are used for transporting either goods or people in tiny quantities. There is some variation in the scope of the word across the different English-speaking countries.

Depending on the type of van, it can be bigger or smaller than a pickup truck and SUV, and bigger than a common car. JSTOR ( July 2007) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Ī Ford Transit Custom low roof van Mercedes-Benz Sprinter high roof van Isuzu Elf box truck (also referred to as a box van)Ī van is a type of road vehicle used for transporting goods or people.Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.
