What is coming down the road for the rest of 2017 after a busy 2016?

COMMERCIAL vehicles typically have much longer product cycles than cars.

There was a time when manufacturers brought in a brand new car every 10 years or so.

Nowadays you can halve that interval; and that’s not counting mid-life facelifts/ revisions and an abundance of updates available.

However, in addition to the longer new-to-new interval for vans and allied LCVs, there is also the fact that, right now, virtually every current offering has been upgraded recently or in the last couple of years.

The result is that much new is expected for 2017.

But there is a new Volkswagen Crafter on the way which will likely bring the marque’s offering back up the ladder significantly in the Large Vans segment. It is no longer a shared vehicle with the Sprinter. There will also be an electric version, revealed at the Hanover CV Show last year.

Fiat’s small sales of the Scudo medium-van this year must be viewed against the background of the recentlyarrived Talento which replaces it.

And is based on a new venture with Opel and Renault, while the Scudo was related to the PSA Group Expert and Dispatch.

The rebuilding of pick-up sales is encouraging.

There will be at least three more arrivals coming later this year.

They include Fiat’s Fullback, Renault’s Alaskan, and the Mercedes-Benz X-Class.

There will also be PSA Peugeot-Citroen branded pick-ups, their first time in the segment.

In SUV commercials, the newgeneration change in Land Rover’s Discovery means that there are few if any of the new vehicle being sold as yet in commercial form.

It has been reported that there will not be a commercial version.