This week’s Commercial Vehicle Show at the Birmingham NEC will see the launch of one of the most keenly-anticipated new vans for some time. The all-new Citroen Berlingo is expected to continue to dominate the hi-cube small van sector that Peugeot/Citroen pretty-much invented with the original Berlingo (also sold as the Peugeot Partner).

The new Berlingo offers increased payloads (up to 650/850kg from 600/800kg) and a slightly larger loadspace, as well as improved creature comforts, a host of optional extras and improved ride and lower noise. There is also a third (middle) seat in the cab area – although even Citroen describe it as being ‘for occasional use’, it’s the first time a van of this size has had three seats of any kind and is bound to come in handy once in a while.

The new Berlingo will also be available with several features designed to help fleet managers improve efficiency and cut costs. The new Citroen Active Fleet Data Service will monitor indicators such as fuel consumption, mileage, oil levels and service intervals, allowing all of this data to be centrally managed and hopefully resulting in lower fleet management costs and reduced vehicle downtime.

The New Berlingo goes on sale in May 2008 and will be on display with Citroen’s other new light commercial models (the Nemo, Jumpy and Jumper) at this week’s Commercial Vehicle Show.

Despite the introduction of the New Berlingo, Citroen will continue to make and sell the current (old) model, badged as the Berlingo First (it was going to be Berlingo Origin, but this seems to have changed).

Berlingo First models will continue to be available for an as yet unspecified length of time – but their popularity and practicality means there might be strong demand for them for some time yet.