South Africa kept building the E20 Caravan until 1996, twenty-three years after its Japanese debut, selling 77,000.
Median 64 hp across 28 similar cars
Lead trim: 2.0 H20 OHV
Nissan Caravan / Urvan E20–E22E20 · 1973–1980
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Nobody in Burbles has spotted a Nissan Caravan / Urvan E20–E22 yet. See one on the street, point the app at it, and the first card is yours — with your @handle permanently credited on this page.
FactSouth Africa kept building the E20 Caravan until 1996, twenty-three years after its Japanese debut, selling 77,000.
The E20 series, built from February 1973 and exclusive in Japan to Nissan Store dealers (its Homy twin, sold at Nissan Prince Stores, followed in January 1976 with no mechanical differences), sold outside Japan as the Datsun Urvan until the Nissan name replaced it worldwide in 1983–84. Seating ran from three to up to ten passengers, with 1.5, 1.6 and 2.0 L petrol engines and a later 2.2 L diesel. It was heavy to steer, with no power steering and a long, curved floor shifter, but had five gears, unusual in Europe then. Very popular in Europe, and with fire departments and as ambulances. In South Africa the E20 was built to 1996 (77,000 sold), latterly with the L18 replacing the H20. Nissan added the smaller Vanette in 1978.
Collectors Spotted in the Nissan Caravan Lineage
No member has published a public street spot of the Nissan Caravan yet — the First · Worldwide stamp is wide open.
Trims & Figures
4 published trims in the catalogue. A blank is a figure not recorded, not zero.
| Trim | Years | Engine | Power | Torque | 0–60 | Drive | Gearbox | MSRP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.5 J15 OHV | 1973–1980 | 1.5 L Inline-4 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1.6 J16 OHV | 1973–1980 | 1.6 L Inline-4 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2.0 H20 OHV | 1973–1980 | 2.0 L Inline-4 | 99 hp | 123 lb-ft | — | — | — | — |
| 2.2 SD22 OHV diesel | 1973–1980 | 2.2 L Inline-4 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Owning one
We don’t estimate running costs for a car like this. What it costs depends on its condition, its specialist and how it is driven, and an average would mislead.
Owners’ builds
Nobody has claimed one yet.
Photographs
The NV350 doesn't just wear Nissan badges — in the Middle East it's also sold as the Mitsubishi Fuso Canter Van, built by Nissan under a 2013 OEM supply deal.
New Zealand's safety testers gave the Urvan version of this Caravan just one star out of five.
FAW Jiefang in China simply cloned this Caravan generation outright as its own CA 6440 van.
A 1981 show limousine concept called the Elgrand Royal Line quietly gave Nissan the name for a future model.
South Africa kept building the E20 Caravan until 1996, twenty-three years after its Japanese debut, selling 77,000.
Rivals
Same body, same money, other badges — tap any card to flip.
Chevy pitched the Astro as the anti-minivan, telling buyers life was too big for one, while it rode on a rear-wheel-drive truck frame.
The IIHS rated the Astro Poor in a 1996 crash test, yet 2001–2004 Astros later had the lowest driver death rate of any US passenger vehicle.
The boxy, unglamorous Astro quietly posted one of the best real-world safety records in America: IIHS found 2001-2004 models had the fewest driver deaths per million vehicles of any passenger vehicle on US roads.
The third-generation Tourneo Connect, released in Europe in October 2021, is a rebadged fourth-generation Volkswagen Caddy, assembled by Volkswagen in Poland.
Ford beat the 25% "chicken tax" by importing the Transit Connect as a passenger van — rear windows and seats included, then stripped out and recycled once it landed in the US.
Ford spent years in federal court over the second-gen Transit Connect: in June 2019 the US won its appeal, and judges ruled the van was cargo-only — ending Ford's workaround for the 'chicken tax.'
GM sold a rebadged Nissan NV200 as the Chevy City Express for four years, then killed it in 2018, citing weak sales and the fact that its parts weren't even compatible with GM's own parts catalog.
Its name is a pun: "S-Cargo" means "Small Cargo" but sounds just like escargot — French for snail, the shape the whole van was built to resemble.