When I was a kid, my incredibly industrious father bought an entirely white, essentially “naked” Dodge Ram van and personally, by hand, kitted it out to the nines for family road trips.
This thing had it all: a dining table and bench seats (with gear storage space) that converted into a bed, a fridge, a microwave, a bathroom, a gaming-compatible TV and, of course, a sweet beige-and-brown desert paint job with meticulous pinstriping.
The Nissan version of a “camper in a box” sits on detachable, height-adjustable wheels, enabling you to slide it into the back of the van, raise the accordion-like roof and have everything set up in, they say, five minutes.
These days it’s just a little easier to outfit your new rig, at least in Europe. That’s where Nissan has teamed up with a Berlin-based upstart called PlugVan on a modular concept that totally reinvents its Interstar commercial van — and floats the ambitious notion that a work van and a camper van can co-exist in the same space.
Plug and play
It’s funny because in the US, Nissan and “vans” are mutually exclusive (We just checked: There’s literally no sign of the category on the brand’s US site.)
Meanwhile, the Nissan x PlugVan concept — which will be on display at the Düsseldorf Caravan Salon beginning tomorrow — is essentially a “camper in a box” that can be loaded into the back of an Interstar in a matter of minutes.
