Consider the wildly-successful Toyota 70 Series LandCruiser.
Which is available in several body styles including a large panel van-style Troop Carrier version.
And then there’s the Suzuki Jimny Commercial – a two-seater light-commercial vehicle (LCV) version of the hot-selling small 4×4.
Emissions requirements have forced the company to resort to the LCV-only approach, but the model has its fair share of fans.
Sometimes, over the years, small gems of information surface as you spend time with designers and engineers of car companies.
One such titbit garnered during our protracted pre-launch events for the T6.2 Ranger and its Everest SUV offshoot concerns an on-again/off-again panel van version of the latter.
According to one source, the concept of a two-seater commercial vehicle version of the body-on-frame wagon has been mooted over the years, particularly for European, Asian and African markets, where such vehicles have historically found some traction with consumers.
The idea is simple: the SUV would retain its two front seats, but have the second – and third rows, if fitted – removed and replaced by a lower, hardy flat floor that’s suitable for loading things in – just like a regular panel van would.
While it is understood that no such project currently exists based on the existing version of the Everest, it has been previously explored and may be again, depending on whether Ford’s various marketing departments identify demand for such a panel van globally.
And why not? Their advantages are surprisingly numerous.
Along with farmers needing a go-anywhere workhorse, there are wide-ranging applications for an SUV-based panel van across the business spectrum, especially in rural areas.
Consider the wildly-successful Toyota 70 Series LandCruiser.
Which is available in several body styles including a large panel van-style Troop Carrier version.
Emergency response services, too, could use such vehicles, particularly when needing to access remote places that normal low-riding vans cannot.
This also has the advantage of flying under the radar if owners cannot procure secure parking (especially overnight) and are worried about people breaking in and stealing valuable equipment. Vans have long been targets for such criminal behaviour, but a base-model SUV might blend in with the rest of the streetscape.
Then there’s the enduring appeal of SUVs, with their modern driving dynamics, car-like comfort (in some cases, like the Ford’s), fashionable styling and high-riding driving position, giving consumers wary of image a less obviously commercial-vehicle based option.
Can you imagine a Ford Everest Wildtrak panel van, complete with lurid Holden Sandman-style colours, stripes and stickers?
And then there’s the Suzuki Jimny Commercial – a two-seater light-commercial vehicle (LCV) version of the hot-selling small 4×4.
Emissions requirements have forced the company to resort to the LCV-only approach, but the model has its fair share of fans.
Plus, compared to the ever-popular and present ute like the Ranger, an SUV panel van provides a large, secure and covered load area with all-weather protection. And owners and drivers can sleep more comfortably and securely inside of them.
Downsides? Compared to a regular van, they’d be expensive, not have their cargo height, width and load capacity and probably cost more. But, while overlapping, they would also have a slightly different buyer base with different needs.
So, what would be required?
Minimal changes would be needed from an exterior point of view, as the rear doors would remain for side access. Only their windows might be completely tinted with no see-through ability, or removed and swapped out for body-coloured blanking panels, and probably ones that don’t open. Similarly, the tailgate may also get the blanked-out treatment, though that may remain an option.
A similar strategy has long been applied by other manufacturers, meaning of course that Ford is far from the first with the idea.
Consider the wildly-successful Toyota 70 Series LandCruiser, which is available in several body styles including a large panel van-style Troop Carrier version. This has been on sale for decades, and has proved – as a range – so popular that Toyota currently has a stop-sale on it. And a successor is expected in the not-too-distant future.
Most recently, there has been the availability in some parts of the world – but not Australia as yet – of the Land Rover Defender Hard Top, launched in 2021.
The British 4×4 icon version caters to a commercial need for a large panel van with considerably greater off-road abilities than, say, a Ford Transit or Toyota HiAce. Previous generations of Defender with such a configuration proved popular with British farmers, so there’s already an established right-hand-drive market for one… hint, hint.
And then there’s the Suzuki Jimny Commercial – a two-seater light-commercial vehicle (LCV) version of the hot-selling small 4×4. Emissions requirements have forced the company to resort to the LCV-only approach, but the model has its fair share of fans.
There are others too, including a Dacia Duster van as well as an Ineos Grenadier.
So, back to the Everest.
With its large-SUV length, considerable height, ample ground clearance and rugged rear-drive or four-wheel-drive drivetrain underneath, the Everest would make an ideal candidate to take these on – especially as the passenger-carrying version is sold in more than hundreds of markets around the world.
Keyword: Look out, Toyota LandCruiser 70 Series and Suzuki Jimny Commercial: A van-based 2023 Ford Everest SUV could happen, to take on the these plus Land Rover Defender Hard Top, Ineos Grenadier