Nissan Townstar Review 2024

If your business is such that you need the space and versatility of a van but you don’t need the enormous space that a large van affords, then a compact van is a good solution. And of the compact vans on the market currently, we reckon the Nissan Townstar is one of the better ones. It’s especially impressive for ride comfort and equipment, and it’s competitive in all the other important areas, too.

So far, we’ve only tried the all-electric Nissan Townstar EV. That means we can’t tell you if it’s any better than the petrol-powered version, but there’s certainly very little wrong with it, so it’s easy to recommend if you can live with the limited range.

In terms of trim level, the Acenta gets most of the basics, but the reversing camera and all-round parking sensors of the Tekna do make parking manoeuvres much easier, and are worth the upgrade as a result.

There are two vehicles that are extremely similar to the Nissan Townstar, and those are the Renault Kangoo and the Mercedes-Benz Citan. Why? Because underneath their respective skins, the three are all mechanically identical.

Ford offers a couple of rivals in the form of the Transit Courier and the Transit Connect. The latter is a smidge bigger than the former, but there’s very little in it. The latter also shares its mechanicals with the Volkswagen Caddy Cargo, so has to be considered as another rival.

Then there’s the group coming out of the Stellantis stable, those being the Citroen Berlingo, the Peugeot Partner and the Vauxhall Combo. Toyota isn’t part of Stellantis, but nevertheless, it offers another version of the same van called the Proace City.

The interior of pretty much every commercial vehicle under the sun puts durability before tactility, and that’s no different in the Townstar. Yes, all the plastics are hard to the touch rather than being cushioned, but that means they won’t mark anywhere near as easily and they can be wiped clean. They look smart enough, too, and everything feels very solidly put together. Most of the buttons and switches feel substantial in the way they work, too, with the climate control dials feeling particularly slick. If we’ve one complaint, it’s that Nissan could’ve been a wee bit more imaginative with the colour scheme of the interior: it’s VERY grey in there.

All versions of the Townstar come with the same 8.0-inch colour touchscreen in the middle of the dashboard, and it supports Bluetooth, DAB radio, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. We couldn’t get our Android phone to connect with the latter, but to be fair, that might not have been the fault of the vehicle. Tekna and Tekna+ trim levels also have integrated navigation, which will come in handy if that should happen to you.

The graphics are a little dated, and not the sharpest, either, but they’re good enough to do the job and it’s reasonably easy to find your way around the system. The touch-sensitive shortcut icons on the left-hand side of the screen help on that score, as do fairly logical menu layouts. What’s more, while the system has all the functionality you want, it’s not absolutely rammed full of superfluous features, and that also helps make the system easy to navigate.

The old-school analogue dials of Acenta and Tekna might not give you the techy feelgood factor of fashionable digital instruments, but they’re as easy as pie to read and keep you well abreast of everything you need to know about. The Tenka+ does get digital instruments, and these do just as good a job and look a little flashier.

The Nissan Townstar is a compact van, and in terms of dimensions, it’s 1,860mm wide (without door mirrors) and 1,864mm tall. There are two body lengths available, meanwhile, the L1 being 4,488mm long and the L2 being 4,910 long.

In terms of load area, you get 3.3 cubic metres of space in the L1 and 4.3 cubic metres in the L2. In both, the loadbay is 1,248mm wide between the rear wheelarches, and loadbay height stands at 1,215mm in the L1 and 1,229mm in the L2. Obviously, the bigger difference lies in the length of the loadbay, and this stands at 1,810mm in the L1 and 2,230mm in the L2. With those dimensions, both versions are capable of carrying two Europallets. 

On the back of the Townstar, you’ll find twin side-hinged rear doors that can be opened up to 180 degrees if you unhook the stoppers built into the hinges, and this gives really good access to the loadbay. On top of that, all versions of the Townstar get sliding side doors on both sides of the vehicle for even better access: some vans only give you one of these, and some none at all. The L2’s sliding doors open a little wider than the L1’s and this bigger aperture allows you to load a Europallet through the side.

If you’re considering a petrol-powered Townstar, the maximum payloads are 725kg for the L1 and 762kg for the L2. That reduces by quite a bit on the all-electric version: 478kg for the L1 and 681kg for the L2.

Obviously, the Crew Van version (only available on the L2) is a rather different kettle of fish, because some of its cargo-carrying capacity is sacrificed for an extra row of seats. With all those seats in place, your loadspace length is 1,458mm long for a load volume of 2.1 cubic metres. However, when they’re not needed, those rear seats can be folded down to boost the loadbay to 2,000mm in length and 3.1 cubic metres in capacity. The payloads for the Crew Van are given at 805kg on the petrol and 679kg on the electric version.

The electric version of the Nissan Townstar, the imaginatively named Townstar EV, has a 121PS electric motor powering the front wheels through a single-speed transmission, and it’s fed by a 45kWh lithium-ion battery pack.

According to the official figures, it’ll do the 0-60mph dash in 14 seconds in L1 form, or 15 seconds in the slightly heavier L2. That suggests very leisurely performance, but that’s not quite the full story. It actually feels much perkier than the numbers suggest when pulling away from the mark, where the strong and instantaneous torque from the electric motor can deliver its best effect. We reckon its 0-30mph time would actually be pretty quick, and it’s getting the rest of the way up to 60mph that takes up most of the official time. 

You can feel that more leisurely unfurling of performance when trying to pick up speed on the move, but the Townstar EV never feels underpowered or out of its depth, and you’ll easily keep up with motorway traffic. Like with many EVs, the top speed is pretty low at 84mph.

The petrol-powered Townstar has a 1.3-litre four-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine that’s mated exclusively to a six-speed manual gearbox. Nissan doesn’t quote a 0-60mph or 0-62mph time for this version for some reason, but it has a higher top speed than the EV at 114mph. However, we haven’t tried this version yet, so we can’t tell you what it’s like.

The Nissan Townstar EV has quite a small battery at just 45kWh, so it’s range isn’t the biggest compared with most electric cars, although compared with other electric vans, it’s pretty competitive. The WLTP combined range is given at 183 miles combined, and a figure of 269 miles is said to be achievable when confined to city driving.

As always with EVs, though, you’ll see that figure plummet with prolonged motorway use, or when it’s cold outside.

Like with most electric vehicles, you’re in for a pretty quiet life with Nissan Townstar EV. You hear a bit of  a whine from the motor as it spools up, but it's very quiet and distant at all times. You’ll plod through town very quietly indeed, with only the odd creak from the loadbay or clonk from the suspension for company. 

Go faster, and you’ll hear a bit of wind noise fluttering around the windscreen at motorway speed, but it’s still fairly quiet and road noise is reasonably well contained as well. The electric Townstar is a pleasantly quiet way to travel, then, but we can’t comment on how refined the petrol version is because we haven’t tried it yet.

The Townstar gets a very decent amount of safety kit as standard, but precisely what you get depends on the trim level you go for. Acenta versions come with six airbags, automatic emergency braking, driver attention alert, traffic sign recognition, speed limit assistance, and reversing sensors.

Tekna trim adds a reversing camera and all-round parking sensors, while Tekna+ vehicles come with 360-degree cameras, adaptive cruise control, lane keep assist, blind spot assist and an automated parking function.

The Townstar has achieved the Gold standard (the second-highest you can get) in Euro NCAP’s commercial vehicle ratings. However, these are more about the provision and effectiveness of electronic driver aids, rather than crash safety.

Take a look at the annual HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index, specifically the page listing the top-ten performing brands for reliability, and you’ll find that, with the exception of Dacia, all the brands on that list are Japanese or Korean.

Nissan, however, is one Japanese brand that doesn’t feature on that list. Then again, it doesn’t feature on the corresponding list of the ten worst-performing brands for reliability, so mid-table respectability it is. 

It’s a similar story when you consider customer satisfaction as a whole: Nissan places 19th of the 29 carmakers included.

However, vans are intentionally designed to be basic so that they’re less likely to go wrong and cost their owners lost earnings due to time off the road. That should go double for the electric version, because its electric motor has only a handful of moving parts, opposed to the thousands you have in a combustion engine.

In fact Nissan offer a far more generous warranty on its commercial vehicles than it does on its cars, with cover for five years or 100,000 miles, rather than three years or 60,000 miles. The battery, meanwhile, is warranted to maintain 70% of its capacity for eight years or 100,000 miles.

Go for the petrol-powered Townstar, and your van will sit in insurance groups 27 or 28, depending on trim level. Go for the electric one, and it’ll be between 28 and 30. Considering there are 50 groups, of which 1 is the cheapest and 50 is the most expensive, then insurance premiums won’t be super-cheap, but they won’t be super-expensive, either.

As a light goods vehicle, the petrol-powered Nissan Townstar is liable for a flat rate of VED tax for such vehicles, which is currently charged at £335 per year. You’ll pay just over £350 if you elect to pay in instalments by direct debit, though, and around £370 if you choose to pay every six months rather than every year. That means it’s better to pay the single annual lump sum if you can.

If you go for the electric Townstar EV, however, you’ll pay nothing because electric vehicles are exempt. This will only remain the case until midway through 2024, though, at which point you’ll be stung for a similar amount of tax as with combustion-engined vehicles.

The standard trim level is called Acenta, and this gets most of the essentials, along with a couple of little luxuries. The standard kit list includes steel wheels with trims, remote locking, climate control, powered windows, cruise control, reversing sensors, and automatic lights and wipers. That’s on top of all the infotainment kit and safety equipment we discussed earlier.

Mid-range Tekna trim gives slightly sharper looks with a body-coloured front bumper and door handles, while you also get keyless entry and go, sat nav, a reversing camera and all-round parking sensors.

Top-end Tekna+ trim adds 16-inch alloys, a leather steering wheel, 360-degree cameras, and the extra safety package.