China's car culture started very late, if you recall in general terms, this time demarcation point was around 1990, before that, cars, including passenger cars, most of them showed only tool attributes, and had nothing to do with the lives of ordinary people, when the people of the whole country were poor, let alone private cars.
After the 1980s, private cars began to sprout, especially after Hainan Province separated from Guangdong in 1988 and became a province, under the tilt of the policy, cars began to become a "first to get rich" people's just needs, especially like Fiat 126, Lada such entry models are more hot, in the early 1990s, a large number of overseas used cars into the country, people began to have the concept of private cars, in economically developed areas gradually became a bulk consumer goods outside the house, It was also at this time that Chinese automobile culture began to sprout. At that time, the passenger cars "imported" to the domestic sales can be described as a variety of additions, categories, brands, positioning, etc. are all disrupted by the "price", what model level, body structure, etc. are all linked to the price caused by the "import channel", the price of the confusion, the blockage of information, but also let the embryonic Stage of Chinese automobile culture into a chaotic period. Among them, multi-purpose vans are the hardest hit areas.
Pictured: This is the Opening Reform, one of the earliest into the Chinese market one of the popular van models Toyota Hiace (H20), this generation of models launched in 1977, just in time to catch up with the mainland's reform and opening up, people and goods can carry the tool attributes make it very popular, its classification actually belongs to LCV, light commercial trucks, because its chassis uses a formation frame, the van is bolted to the large array.
Picture: The earliest professional manned van that appeared in China is the Liteace, a brother model that is one size smaller than Hiace, and the southern region followed the name of Hong Kong and began to call such professional manned vans "vans", that is to say, the earliest model called a van in China is the second generation of Liteace (M20) that was launched in 1979, but at this time the name MPV was not yet born.
Pictured: In the domestic official, business, private three major car market can become popular, and run to the street full of "professional passenger" van is the second generation of Vanette (C22) launched by Nissan in 1985, its Chinese name is Banin, I believe that even if you don't know, ask your parents almost all have heard or even owned.
Pictured: The mini-van launched by Tianjin Dafa Motor is the first mass-produced van in China, its original name is Daihatsu sixth-generation Hijet, divided into truck version and van version, the former is also known as "0.6", the latter is called "micro-surface", with the national conditions at that time, it is the most ideal taxi type in many cities in the north, while the southern region prefers to use "Charade".
The word Van comes from the English abbreviation of Caravan, which first appeared in the mid-17th century and presumably means a covered freight carriage, or if it is understood more simply, a caravan. From the carriage era to the later electric vehicle, automobile era, this word was inherited by those commercial models derived from the car chassis, that is, today we know a variety of models with the "~van" suffix, but in the evolution of such models, there have been two names in Europe and the United States, and the result is the chaotic name of the domestic automobile market, it should be said that the development of China's automobile industry has experienced several stages of learning from the Soviet Union, learning Europe and being harassed by the United States, most of the domestic fans, car enthusiasts, Even most of the media editors actually do not have an accurate concept of which set of ideas should be used to call Van such models, so they do not stop, whether they carry goods or people, as long as it is a single-van body structure, they are called "MPV". What needs to be emphasized here is that in Europe and Japan, such multi-functional models will generally be called ~van, and the name of the United States will generally be called xxMPV, and the domestic public relations department including those who claim to know their own products very well, will also write their own models as "MPV" when advertising, which is really a mixed meal, such as the official advertisement of Japanese multi-functional vans, and even see "Odyssey MPV" or "Alpha MPV" is a taboo, very simple, If you're Toyota-Honda, don't you know that in Japanese cars, the word "MPV" has long been used by Mazda to make its own name? (Ma 8 and its predecessors used MPV as their official name), and if your advertising agency scribbled copy so thoughtlessly, would you shoot table D to TA flip the boat?
Pictured: Van This is a shorthand for Caravan, and the name of a specific model is also a long-standing name, meaning a covered freight vehicle.
Pictured: Verbally, it is not necessary to call MPV for such seven-seater cars, seven-seater cars, and Minivans, but if they are written in a formal way or as a strict way for media editors, the Japanese seven-person car cannot be written as "MPV" in general, because as early as 1988, Mazda had registered the MPV name for its first generation of Minivan models, and has maintained it to this day. If you are an advertising agency of Toyota and Honda, do you mean to use the "Odyssey is an MPV" directly? What is your professional ethic?
It is precisely because of the lack of understanding of the development history of the multi-purpose van, which has led to today's various self-media platforms, various immortals have produced a large number of Zhang Guan Li Dai content, such as the origin of MPV, a large number of self-media editor's copywriting must be to tell you that "Volkswagen T1" is the source model of MPV, and then various praises, conclusion: Volkswagen is advanced. Or they deliberately hide many historical development facts, or deliberately do it in order to achieve a certain purpose, and even the information is not willing to check and open their mouths. As we introduced above, caravans originated in the carriage era, not the innovative structure of cars, so don't brainlessly put gold on the faces of brands that can afford to pay advertising fees. The reference object of the Volkswagen T1, which began production in 1949, was Citroën's TUB, and the successor model of the TUB introduced by Citroën after World War II, H Van, began production in 1947, and its frame chassis belonged to the original front-engine front-wheel drive structure. First of all, The chassis of the Frame of the Beatle was snatched from the Tatra, and the T1 was developed on the basis of the Beatle, which is better or worse, and the fans of the car who are a little bit non-view should be able to distinguish it. Whether it is the Citroën H Van or the Volkswagen T1, they are both light commercial vehicles (LCVs: Light Commercial Vehicles), which have nothing to do with the "MPV" that is often said later.
Pictured: The European Japanese called Minivan or the American MPV, it is easy to understand by mechanical characteristics, Minivan is a van developed from the chassis of a sedan that can ride more than 5 people, so the originator of Minivan should be the 600 Multipla launched by Fiat in 1956.
Pictured: Citroën launched the front-engine front-wheel drive LTV model before World War II, named TUB, which is the originator of light commercial vehicles after World War II, and its successor model is the H Van of 1947, including the Volkswagen T1, many ideas come from this.
Pictured: Volkswagen has been a company that "took" technology everywhere from the beginning of its birth, so it is not worthy of respect in terms of rationality and sensibility, let alone putting gold on its face, but in China, there are a bunch of non-brain fans who follow it, and there is no one. There are even people who take this T1 (Type 2) and brag about what Minivan originator is, it is really not a face to go home. Volkswagen T1 is an LCV developed from Citroën TUB, and later saw Fiat launch minivan and sold more than 100,000 vehicles, plus its American masters also have demand, so there is a passenger version. (Type29 is its prototype car code name, the design concept is a commercial vehicle)
The world's first utility sedan based on a sedan chassis and for the main purpose of carrying people was the Fiat 600 Multipla introduced by Fiat in 1956, and the Origin of the Multiti in the later "MPV: Multi Purpose Vehicle" also began with this car. The car could carry up to six people, and the seat arrangement was designed to reference the three-row layout of the pre-World War II Citroën Traction Avant Familiale model, which in 1965 evolved into the Fiat 850 Familiale, which is closer to today's Minivan. It was not until 1984, the advent of the Renault Espace, that the classification of European Minivan models was standardized, and the Small Minivan or Compactvan, which was smaller than it, was called Mircovan; the Larger Minibus, which was larger, was called LCV. Therefore, it can also be explained here why regardless of the ride comfort or handling, the Mercedes V-Class using a hybrid frame structure is difficult to shake the Toyota Alphard that uses an integrated frame, the reason is that the former frame backbone is similar to the LTV, but the subframe, suspension and other parts use the design of the car, although the safety is higher, but the comfort is obviously lacking; and the latter is the Minivan developed on the New MC chassis platform of the large sedan. There is a clear difference between the two from the nature of the machinery, even if the V-Class is pushed to how luxurious the aftermarket interior modification factory is, open and sit for a few kilometers, you can clearly feel the difference, of course, if you think that the three-star label or even a Maybach can scare people, the nature of the whole thing has changed, not within the scope of this article.
Pictured: Renault Espace, which was only late in 1984, has actually been developed since the end of the 1970s, and it is the product of renault's cooperation with Matra, and both are responsible for production by the latter. The reason why it is remembered by the car world is that it created a structure called hybrid frame, which had a profound impact on the frame structure of later Minivan/MPV models, that is, the first half is similar to the car, still by the subframe as the bearing body of the powertrain, suspension and other components, and the rear frame is made into a platform-like frame in order to improve safety and load capacity, which can still be seen on today's Odyssey RC1.
Pictured: Toyota Alphard has mixed reviews in various media, except for the sensationalism of the "price increase", basically no blogger has said the point: Why does Alphard increase the price? In addition to the low production of the left-hand version, why is it popular? Rich people who can afford it are not fools, and they don't know what a car is and what is comfort and what is not motion sickness, right? New MC chassis is actually the same as the previous generation of Camry, and Alphard is also the first in the Japanese series, and even in all the same size Minivan models in the car chassis to be strengthened on the basis of the structure to achieve a high level of comfort riding, after three generations of word of mouth accumulation, so can come to the present, the reason is so simple, but whether it is iq tax, no acid do not spray, you can feel it with your butt Sensor.
According to the "~van" type of car, according to the size, use, and number of crews, Europe and the United States will have different terms to show the difference, here we will briefly introduce it. Still in Europe from the car frame platform to build the Minivan model as the standard, the United States will be called this model MPV, the smaller one called Compact MPV, probably the Volkswagen Touran level; the smaller two points called Mini MPV, probably the size of the Ford B-Max; slightly larger than the MPV called Minibus, and then a little larger called Full Size Minibus, probably the class of RAM, European LCS also fall into this category. The use of Minibus or LCV as a manned use appeared very early, but this can only be regarded as a side business of this type of car, the Using of the U.S. market is the same, before the 80s were used to convert such cars into personnel cars, influenced and inspired by Renault Espace, American car manufacturers also began to launch "professional" MPV models, the earliest put into mass production is Dogge's Caravan. Another smallest model is called the Mirovan, which is basically only seen in Japan's Kei-Car, such as the Domingo launched by Subaru in 1982.
Pictured: Dodge's Caravan was introduced in 1984, and like the Espace, it also began to scramble for many years before officially entering mass production, and its frame came from Chrysler's front-wheel-drive K platform, which ensured the separation of the engine compartment from the crew compartment and improved comfort, which became the main layout form of most Minivan/MPV models.
Pictured: A huge van like the Dogge Ram Wagon is no longer in the MPV category, and its correct classification should be The Full Size Minibus, while a manned version of the LV like the Volkswagen T1 should be classified in the Minibus category.
Pictured: Vans of this size like the Subaru Domingo are called Mircovans in the classification, but with the adjustment of the Kei-car regulations, the number of nuclear loads of such models (more than 4 people) has been cancelled, including today's Honda N-Van, which still has the word Van, but still can only carry 4 people.
The Japanese automobile industry is based on Europe, so Japan's model classification and classification methods are basically based on European or EU laws, such as the A-F of the car, minivan belongs to the M class, the sports car belongs to the S class, the off-road vehicle belongs to the J class, the SUV classification corresponds to the A-F class of the car, and the Minivan model also roughly follows the Size standard of Europe, but also because its main export market is placed in the United States, so the Japanese Minivan is sometimes quite confused. For example, Nissan Takashi, Toyota Sena, Honda American Odyssey, etc., developed for the U.S. market, their local classification belongs to the Full Size MPV, but the Odyssey, StepWGN, Noah, Alphard, Elgrand, Serena, etc. used in Japan are "must" and "can only" be called Minivan, because Mazda registered the name "MPV" in 1988 to name its multi-purpose van. And used until the Mazda 8 era. This story is in the front, those people in China who pride themselves on "JDM culture" at every turn, can also call out MPV to Hiromoto's Japanese standard left-wing Odyssey, which is indeed admired! Don't you know that Japanese MPVs mean something else? I don't know what you talk about about "JDM culture"?
Pictured: Don't move "JDM", don't move "Japanese MPV", the correct name of the Japanese seven-person car should be Minivan, because "MPV" is the name of a model. Therefore, any advertising company with a little common sense will try to avoid calling their cars "MPV" when making copy or promotional drafts, don't believe it? Find your own car books in Japan and look at the advertisements.
Therefore, such an article is actually just to tell the riders how to correctly distinguish between Minivan/MPV and LPV light commercial vehicles. The multi-purpose van developed by the car chassis, or the model only for passenger use, should be called Minivan in Europe and Japan, and the car in the United States and facing the United States can become MPV; the model that uses the formation chassis or the large composite frame chassis should be called LPV light commercial vehicles, and the passenger vehicle derived from this type of car is called Minibus.
There is no harm in rigorous study, but as a media self-media, don't try to poison this fragile automobile culture soil in China! All right?!