The return of the compact cargo van: What your fleet needs to know

What you'll learn

• Why compact cargo vans left the U.S. market, and which models went away when
• What we know about the 2027 Ram ProMaster City, including size, capability, price, and timing
• Why a compact cargo van may now cost more than a full-size van
• The best compact cargo van alternatives available right now, from crossovers to full-size vans
• How five years of upfit innovation changed the compact cargo van calculation for fleets
• The questions to ask before you commit your fleet to compact vans again

For the past few years, the answer to "What replaces my compact cargo van?" has been some version of "Something else entirely." The U.S. production of small commercial vans wound down model by model, and fleets that had built their operations around, say, a Ford Transit Connect or a Nissan NV200 went looking for alternatives.

Now the compact vans are coming back. So, we sat down with two of Mike Albert’s fleet experts, Jason Kraus, Vice President of Operations, and Alexa Rubin, Truck Upfit Manager, to talk through what's actually coming, what it's likely to cost, and whether the alternatives your fleet adopted in the meantime might still be the better answer.

Why did compact cargo vans disappear?

Slowing sales and a planned industry pivot toward electrification led manufacturers to stop building small commercial vans for the U.S. market. The exits happened one at a time over roughly five years.

Here's what left, and when:

• Chevrolet City Express (2018)
• Nissan NV200 (2021)
• Ram ProMaster City (2022)
• Ford Transit Connect (2023)
• Mercedes-Benz Metris (2023)

Once the last of them was gone, a fleet manager shopping for a new compact cargo van in the U.S. had no options at all. That's what sent so many operations hunting for a Ford Transit Connect replacement, a Nissan NV200 alternative, or simply a different vehicle that could do the same job.

So, compact cargo vans are really coming back?

Well, for now, one is. Ram unveiled the 2027 ProMaster City at Work Truck Week in March 2026, and it's the only compact van launching in the U.S. market for model year 2027.

"Stellantis said, ‘Hey, we're back in,’" says Kraus. "It certainly generated a lot of attention for compact vans, which have long had a loyal fan base."

To no one’s surprise, other OEMs are watching the segment’s rebirth without fully committing to it. For example, Ford hasn't attached a date to a potential successor to the Transit Connect. Mercedes-Benz has talked about bringing back a Metris-like vehicle but hasn't put a timeline in writing. For planning purposes, Kraus says, fleet managers should treat both as possibilities rather than plans.

What do we know about the 2027 Ram ProMaster City?

The short version: it's bigger than the van that left.

"It's wider, and it's longer than what it was when it went away," says Kraus. "It fits a standard 4-by-8 sheet of plywood in the back. It couldn't do that before."

Ram is quoting more than 167 cubic feet of cargo space and enough room between the rear wheel wells to carry two standard pallets front-to-back, along with roughly one ton of payload and one ton of towing capacity. "I don't know how many compact van owners would ever need to tow a ton, but if they want to, they could,” says Kraus.

After test driving a ProMaster at a Stellantis event in June, Kraus said his overall impression was positive. "The turn radius was the thing I really liked,” he says. “I drove a pretty tight course, and it was no problem.”

The ProMaster is also a known quantity. It rides on Stellantis' global commercial van architecture and has been sold in Europe for years. It'll be built in Turkey and shipped to Baltimore, where it gets reconfigured to sidestep the chicken tax, the 25% tariff on imported light trucks that's been on the books since 1964.

When can you actually order one?

"The order banks will open in September or October, and deliveries would start in January," says Kraus.

Regardless of the actual timing, getting an allocation may prove harder than getting a quote.

"I think that order bank will open and close within a week to a week-and-a-half at most, because they can only build so many,” says Kraus. But suffice to say, many fleets who want them just aren't going to get them." For those who are able to submit orders while the order bank is open, keep in mind that most fleets will not actually take delivery in January 2027; rather, this will occur in the spring and early summer of 2027.

For fleets that miss the first allocation, the retail lot isn't likely to provide a soft landing. "There’s likely to be market-based pricing at the dealerships," he says.

So, what will a new compact cargo van cost?

Expect a starting price near $40,000, with little to no incentive support.

"When it left us, a ProMaster City came in around $25,000," says Kraus. "Now you're looking at something just shy of $40,000."

He doesn't expect much movement from there. "Stellantis believes they have a unique position in the marketplace, so they're not likely to offer an incentive,” says Kraus. “That's the counsel we’ve been sharing with our clients."

There's also a wrinkle that catches most fleets off guard.

“When ProMaster City sells out immediately, and it will, keep in mind that it might cost more than a full-size ProMaster 1500 low roof with a 136-inch wheelbase," says Kraus. "So, the smaller thing could cost more than the bigger thing."

All of which gives you a fairly clean decision rule, and it's the one Kraus uses with clients.

"If a client is fine with a $40,000 price point, no incentive, and an order-to-delivery that's going to test their patience, then go ahead, let's build a quote," he says. "But if cost is a budget buster, or if waiting more than six months is unacceptable, this isn't the right product for them, and we need to keep looking at all the other alternatives."

What about electric compact cargo vans?

Not in the U.S. market, and not soon.

The use case is close to ideal. "If there was any segment ripe for electrification, it's compact vans," says Kraus. "They're a product of the city, they're on a route, and they come back to the same place at the end of the day, whether that's a home or a depot, to plug in."

Unfortunately, the product just isn't here. Kia has been talking publicly about its Platform Beyond Vehicle lineup, but the near-term activity is in Canada.

What are the best compact cargo van alternatives right now?

The same three categories that have carried fleets for the past several years. For a lot of fleets, they're still the stronger buy, and the compact van options below remain widely available today.

Compact SUVs and crossovers

A compact SUV or crossover with a ladder rack and an equipment upfit in the cargo area handles a surprising amount of light service work.

• Chevrolet Equinox
• Honda CR-V
• Nissan Kicks
• Nissan Rogue
• Toyota Corolla Cross
• Toyota RAV4

One change worth noting: the Ford Escape, a mainstay of this list for years, is out. Ford ended Escape production at its Louisville plant in December 2025. Kraus doesn't treat the Bronco Sport as an automatic substitute, since it typically runs about $2,500 more.

Compact and midsize pickup trucks

For trades like electricians, plumbers, and carpenters, a properly upfitted compact or midsize pickup is often the strongest compact cargo van alternative on the board.

• Chevrolet Colorado
• Ford Maverick
• Ford Ranger
• Nissan Frontier
• Toyota Tacoma

The Honda Ridgeline is on hold. Honda plans to pause production in the fourth quarter of 2026 and return with a heavily updated truck around 2028, which takes it off the table for near-term planning.

Rubin points to the economics that pushed fleets here in the first place. "As compact vans went away, price was what people were most sensitive to," she says. "Going from a compact van to a full-size pickup wasn't easy, because the price differential was astronomical. Going from a compact van to a Maverick was comparatively much better. That was the affordable option."

The other draw was purely practical. "People were in compact vans because of price, and because you could park it anywhere," she says. "You didn't have to go hunting for a spot big enough for a full-size van. You can do the same thing with a Maverick."

Kraus uses a term Stellantis coined for exactly this quality. "’Garageable’ is a word they made up, but I like it. It means it fits in my home garage, and it can still work for me downtown. If you're in an urban setting, that matters a lot. In rural America, not as much." Both the ProMaster City and the Maverick clear that bar. Plenty of clients tell him they can't run a medium- or high-roof full-size van at all for the same reason.

Full-size commercial vans

If your payloads have grown along with your business, thinking bigger may cost less than you'd expect, particularly given where compact van pricing has landed.

• Chevrolet Express 2500 Cargo Van
• Ford Transit T150 or T250
• GMC Savana 2500 Cargo Van
• Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 2500
• Ram ProMaster 1500 or 2500

How upfit innovation changed the comparison

The alternatives got considerably better while the compact van was gone, and that changes the math for anyone considering a move back.

When compact vans disappeared, many fleets moved to pickups, and the upfit industry followed them there.

"Truck caps were just truck caps before," says Rubin. "They weren't watertight, the locking mechanisms weren't great, and lead times were really long. Then the entire industry rose to meet the challenge."

What that produced included:

• Shorter lead times on caps
• Far more variety in available product
• Customizable toolboxes
• Modular units from multiple manufacturers
• Slide systems that move forward so you can load a pallet in the bed

"It's a really functional offering now, because we were forced to innovate," she says.

The gains weren't only about capability. "With a Maverick, you don't have to fold over double to get inside and reach your equipment," says Rubin. "You pull out a watertight, lockable drawer with everything organized in it. That's better for a company’s employees. There's less injury. You're not bumping your head on a low door threshold. You're not bending as much. When your equipment is in your power zone, it's easier to reach, easier to lift, and easier to manage, as opposed to doing that hunched-over scoot to get out of the back of a compact van."

What that looks like on the job

Mike Albert helped a client in the mobile paint business realize that with inflatable paint booths, they could replace their full-size vans with a vehicle like the Toyota Tacoma. The booth attaches to the back of the truck, which has a turbine spray system, and the crew can pull a full-size car inside to paint it.

The same client also performs paintless dent repair. The Mike Albert upfit team found that a cargo slide designed for the Ford Maverick could work in a compact SUV as well, with a plywood platform to level out the slope left when the rear seats fold down and a wire partition to finish the job.

The new van will need time to catch up

Here's the part that tends to get lost in the excitement over the compact van’s return: the upfit ecosystem for the new ProMaster City may not exist fully.

"There will be a ton of beautiful upfits for that compact van," says Rubin, "but to be able to access all of those things, there's going to have to be some innovation. You'll need slides so people aren't folding in half to reach their tools, because they're used to bed slide systems now."

That kind of development takes time. "There's probably going to be a lag between the product and what Adrian Steel, Knapheide, and Ranger Design come out with to suit it," she says. "We've had five or six years of innovation on truck caps and bed slides. Even if everybody puts in their best effort and spends a lot of money on upfront R&D, the first round of compact van upfits probably won't be the most customizable solution. It needs to marinate in the industry and get feedback to become truly functional."

Her advice follows naturally: "If you're trying to build a package in that chassis that isn't the base offering, and you know the base offering won't work for you, it may be worth waiting to see what your preferred upfitter comes up with before committing to that change."

What fleets tend to forget about compact vans

Space and payload are two different things, and compact vans run out of payload first.

"Compact anything comes at the expense of payload," says Kraus. "It's a smaller vehicle with a smaller engine."

He's seen what happens when fleets lose sight of that. "When the first compact vans launched, the number one issue everybody had was that the transmissions blew up. Why? Because everybody took what they'd been carrying in a full-size van, put an entire Home Depot in the back, and blew out the transmission."

The same risk applies now. "Our plumbers and electricians aren't driving around with boxes of potato chips back there," he says. "They're going to weigh out quickly."

There's a space tradeoff running the other direction, too. A cap and a pull-out on a Maverick recover most of the usable volume of a van, though not all of it. "It's not like there was a Maverick van," says Rubin. Move back to a compact van and you gain enclosed volume, but until the slide systems arrive, "you've got to do the ‘shimmy and scoot’.”

Should you wait or replace now?

Start by evaluating how well your current alternative is actually working, then decide. Rubin offers one data point worth sitting with before you do anything else.

"The whole industry has been waiting for this. Everybody's excited about the compact van," she says. "But we haven't had a lot of clients on the upfit side asking us about that product, or asking us to convert them back into it."

She thinks that's a familiar pattern. "It's like some of those situations we saw during COVID. If somebody didn't have access to the things they wanted, they found another solution. And sometimes that solution turned out to be better than what they were doing before. They didn't go back."

She watched it happen in another corner of the industry. "We saw a huge adoption of shore power because people couldn't get their refrigerated trailers that ran on diesel. So they moved to containers with gensets running on shore power and retrofitted their docks to accommodate them. It was cheaper, less annoying, and more consistent. And they didn't go back."

Here’s her read on where the market heads next: "For people who still want to run gas and aren't interested in EVs, they're going to stick with their Mavericks, their Tacomas, their Frontiers. Those are the OEMs giving really nice incentives on vehicles that don't have astronomical order-to-delivery times and are in stock. I think we'll see that more than an immediate snap back to the compact van."

Weigh what a return costs your standardization

Coming out of the pandemic, most fleets were assembled from whatever was available. Many have spent the years since cleaning that up.

"Everybody had a mishmash of a fleet. All of their vehicles and upfits were what they could get," says Rubin. "People are stepping toward standardization now. It's easier to manage, it's easier to maintain, and it's just easier to keep track of what your upfits are."

Adding a new chassis works against that. "If you're looking at the Stellantis product, it's probably a good idea to look at the effect that'll have on your fleet makeup," she says. "Is stepping away from the standardization you've moved toward the correct move for you? And if you're willing to give that up, you're committing to being in the compact van game going forward. That's a big multi-year fleet decision you're making on behalf of your whole organization."

Ask whether the segment will stay this time

Rubin's other caution is about staying power.

"It's back in model year 27. Will it be back in model year 28? Model year 29? Is this going to stay and persist?" she asks. "A lot of it is contingent on whether they move off dealer lots, because dealers have to take them under contract. If they don't move, Stellantis could discontinue it again in a few years, and then we're back to where we were."

How to choose the right compact van for your fleet

Start with your work requirements and your fleet data, not with the vehicle.

"Measure twice, cut once. Whatever alternative you moved to, you made a change," he says. "Have you evaluated how that change is going versus whatever you had in the past? If it's working better, stay where you're at. If you step back and go, ‘Oh, that's been a horrible idea’, then maybe conversion back is the right thing."

Kraus and Rubin both suggest working through these considerations before committing either way:

• Payload, honestly measured. What do your vehicles actually carry on a normal working day?
• Access and ergonomics. How often do technicians reach for equipment, and what does that motion cost them across a full shift?
• Parking and route profile. Is garageability a daily requirement or a nice-to-have?
• Total cost of ownership. Historically, the difference in TCO between a compact SUV and a full-size commercial van runs more than ten cents per mile. That adds up quickly.
• Standardization. What does one more chassis type cost you in maintenance, parts, and administration?
• Remarketing. Compact SUVs and midsize pickups have a broader resale market than commercial vehicles once the upfit equipment comes off.

On that last point, Rubin cautions against overweighting resale. "Most fleets have to recognize that they won't get a lot out of some vehicles on the back end, because they have a ton of miles and they've been used hard every workday for nine or ten hours."

The better frame, she says, is what the vehicle produces while you own it. "Think about all the things you can do to make a vehicle more functional, efficient, and safe to operate. Then calculate how much the vehicle earns your company daily over three to five years. When you do that, it puts the remarketing value in a new light."

And whichever chassis you land on, it's only half the decision. Rubin advises clients not to underestimate the upfit.

"You have to focus on the work requirements your fleet must accommodate," says Rubin. "What's the typical payload that your vehicles need to haul? Are your vehicles used by electricians or field techs who need a safe and easy way to transport and access their tools? We ask our clients important questions like these to help guide their decision-making process. But in the end, it's up to our clients to determine what they can or can't live without."

If you'd like help working through that for your own operation, our compact van upfit team and fleet experts are ready to dig in. Contact us to start the conversation.

About our experts

Jason Kraus, Vice President of Operations

Jason Kraus brings nearly 30 years of experience in automotive components and fleet management. At Mike Albert, he oversees purchasing and pricing operations and develops the strategic OEM partnerships that keep clients ahead of product changes like this one. He's a frequent industry speaker and a regular contributor to fleet publications. Read Jason's full bio.

Alexa Rubin, Truck Upfit Manager

Alexa Rubin has more than 11 years of experience across fleet management, supply chain optimization, and customer service. As Truck Upfit Manager at Mike Albert, she designs upfit solutions built around how fleets actually work, and her team's work earned a 2025 Van Upfit Package of the Year award. Read Alexa's full bio.