The best large vans 2025

Whether it’s grocery delivery, parcel drops, long-distance couriering or heavy duties on a building site, a big panel van needs to be a seriously hard worker. It has to be able to carry plenty – in terms of both size and weight – while remaining agile enough to thread through tight city centres.

More difficult still is the need to minimise overall weight. Vehicles over 3.5-tonnes in weight require a special category on one’s driving licence – a category you have by default, but only if you passed your driving test before January 1997. As this applies to fewer people with every year that goes by, if a van wants to have the widest possible appeal, it must weigh less than 3.5t and still have a useful maximum payload.

Large vans also find themselves the basis for many specialist conversions. Whether they’re turned into a fridge van, an ambulance or just a big-box Luton for house moves, the underlying need for a sturdy chassis and easy driving dynamics remains.

The good news is that large panel vans these days can be as easy to drive as any car. Myriad cameras, assisted driving tech and light controls mitigate the difficulty in low-speed manoeuvring, and thanks to comfortable cabs, good driving positions and forgiving suspension they’re often really comfortable for longer trips too.

Large vans are some of the hardest vehicles to electrify, but van manufacturers are finally cracking this – almost every van in our roundup below is available with an electric powertrain as well as diesel. In some cases, these are really good and well worth recommending.

Costs are incredibly important too, especially as most large vans are operated by fleets – a difference of just a few pounds a day can quickly add up when you have several hundred vehicles.

Carwow’s expert reviews team has driven all the large vans on sale and feel confident in recommending those below. Some are more compromised than others, but all of them have their merits – and are capable of carrying plenty.

The best large vans 2025

1. Renault Master/Nissan Interstar
2. Ford Transit
3. Mercedes Sprinter
4. Toyota Proace Max
5. VW Crafter/MAN TGE
6. Fiat Ducato/Peugeot Boxer/Citroen Relay/Vauxhall Movano
7. Iveco Daily
8. Maxus Deliver 9

Renault Master/Nissan Interstar

Best for: all-round supremacy

Get used to a bit of badge-sharing – the Renault Master and Nissan Interstar are far from the last vans in this list to be mechanically identical but wearing different badges and grilles. The good news is that, whichever one of these two you pick, you’re getting an example of the best large panel van currently on sale.

The Master is stonking value. For several thousand pounds less than most alternatives you get a punchy 130hp engine, a straightforward interior featuring a sensible layout, and super-impressive payloads of close to two tonnes.

The Master range is a bit limited – so far there’s only a panel van variant, in two body lengths and two roof heights, not as much choice as you get with the Ford Transit. It also lacks much in the way of trim levels, though the sensible engine lineup includes a cheap entry-level van with a manual gearbox, plus an optional auto.

There’s also the fantastic Master E-Tech electric van, which uses an 84kWh battery to achieve a real-world range in excess of 200 miles. That strikes the ideal balance, as it retains a payload even better than some diesel alternatives, with a really usable range between charges.

The Master’s cab is spacious and easy to get along with – it’s not particularly stylish, and compared to the digital dials you can get on most alternatives the traditional gauges, manual handbrake and old-fashioned twisty key do feel a bit quaint. But wireless smartphone connectivity or the option of proper baked-in Google Apps put it a step beyond the alternatives.

The Renault Master would be a good van if it was the same price as its closest alternatives – the fact it’s several thousand pounds cheaper makes it a great one.

Ford Transit

Best for: driving experience

There are few names in the business as trusted as ‘Ford Transit’, and for good reason. This generation of Transit – named just Transit, as opposed to the smaller Transit Custom, Transit Connect and Transit Courier – was launched way back in 2014, but has since undergone several major updates, the latest of which installed a vast touchscreen into a much-updated interior.

There’s loads to like about the latest Transit. It’s available as a panel van, double-cab with two rows of seats, a versatile chassis cab or a full-on minibus. There are several trim levels including the achingly cool Transit Trail, plus numerous body lengths, wheelbases and roof heights.

There’s even a choice of front or rear-wheel drive for most of the engine variants and an options list spanning ten pages on Ford’s website. Not to mention the all-electric E-Transit. You know how many possible variants there are of the order of a deck of cards? Configurating a Transit is a bit like that.

It has strong payloads, but the real joy for whoever has to drive the Transit is just how good it feels on the road. It’s the perfect balance of rugged, comfortable, and agile – there are small hatchbacks you feel less confident about pushing down a B-road than the Transit. Ford’s suite of business software and network of van centres are pretty much unbeatable, too.

Mercedes Sprinter

Best for: a posh image

Businesses across the country use Mercedes vans to project a posh image for their business – and it’s no wonder when you see the latest Sprinter. It looks really smart inside and out, and the allure of that three-pointed star can’t be understated.

The Sprinter is also a pretty smart choice if you’re after a dependable van. Not only does it regularly score highly in reliability surveys, if you keep servicing it with Mercedes you get a staggering 30 years of free roadside assistance – that’s commitment.

The Sprinter is great to drive with powerful engines, and the cab is seriously comfortable – plus, you get Mercedes’ infotainment system which feels just as intuitive as you get in any car. Don’t forget the all-electric Mercedes eSprinter either, which features a vast battery pack capable of up to 272 miles on a charge.

Sprinter payloads aren’t as impressive as in some large van alternatives, and it’s definitely pricey – but you do seem to get what you pay for.

Toyota Proace Max

Best for: warranty

The Proace Max is mechanically identical to the numerous vans sold through the Stellantis Group (below) but we’ve separated it out here on the strength of Toyota’s warranty and aftercare. Keep the Proace Max serviced – at a growing network of highly-regarded Toyota Professional sites – and you can enjoy up to a decade of warranty cover, longer than any alternative.

It’s a little bit of a shame that the underlying van doesn’t match the quality of the aftercare. The Toyota Proace Max is based on the same platform as the Fiat Ducato and many others, which means the basic design dates back to 2006 – and you can see that in the cramped cab, which has modern tech quite uncomfortably shoehorned in.

It’s a bit agricultural to drive, though the electric model is excellent with a very long range. It’s also very affordable, though the Toyota variant is a bit pricier than its Stellantis stablemates thanks to its longer standard kit list.

VW Crafter/MAN TGE

Best for: comfort

More badge-sharing – and in choosing between these two vehicles, it depends what kind of fleet you already have. If you’re a smaller operator looking for a van this size to be the largest in your fleet, then go with the VW – if you have a network of trucks and lorries and want something smaller, go to MAN, where you’ll enjoy the same truck-style service network.

Both of these are superb vans to drive, though. The eight-speed automatic transmission available on top models is the best automatic currently available in a van, but lesser versions are good to drive too and all of them are very comfortable especially on a longer journey. The diesel engines are pretty efficient, too.

Fiat Ducato/Peugeot Boxer/Citroen Relay/Vauxhall Movano

Best for: value

As mentioned above, these four vans share their chassis with the Toyota Proace Max – but are much more comparable in terms of their specs and warranty offerings. There are benefits to buying these vans, despite their dated design – there’s a vast network of dealers and service centres, and they’ve been around for so long that most reliability issues have been firmly ironed out.

You also can’t argue with the impressive payloads on offer, nor the excellent electric variants. And they’re some of the cheapest large panel vans on sale. They’re just not that nice to drive or live with.

Iveco Daily

Best for: heavy-duty work

The Iveco Daily suffers in this company because it’s really best as an even larger panel van. The heaviest Daily variant goes up to 7.2t – crossing over with some small lorries – but this heavy-duty construction means that for the 3.5t variants that make up the bulk of large panel van sales in the UK, the weight and sturdiness impacts payloads and usability.

The Daily is still great if you want truck-style servicing – perhaps you already have a fleet of larger Iveco trucks and lorries – or if you’re an owner-operator with the right licence categories you can opt for a larger one and enjoy greater payloads. It’s also quite good to drive, with an excellent automatic gearbox on some variants and loads of choice in the range. There’s also an all-electric e-Daily, though it’s very expensive.

Maxus Deliver 9

Best for: spending as little as possible

The Maxus Deliver 9 is the cheapest large panel van available in the UK, and in some respects it does feel it – the diesel engine isn’t particularly powerful and is quite noisy, the interior is cheap and nasty and the dealer network isn’t as extensive as the alternatives. The all-electric eDeliver 9 is better, though not up there with the best electric vans.

However it does offer what most people would want – a low price tag, a big load area and a decent payload. Parent company SAIC Motor also owns MG, so you probably don’t need to worry that Maxus is going anywhere any time soon.

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