Van-tastic concept targets aquatic shutterbugs

Seemingly targeting a micro-niche within a niche, Nissan has developed a van that it says is designed specifically to suit the needs of a professional underwater photographer.

Dubbed the NV200 and jointly conceived by Nissan's design headquarters in Japan and the UK-based Nissan Design Europe (NDE) studio, the concept is due to make its worldwide debut at the Tokyo Motor Show in October.

Nissan boasts that the concept turns conventional light commercial design inside out -- literally -- as its piece de resistance is a storage pod that extends from the van's load area when the vehicle is parked.

The pod is latched inside the load area when the van is being driven. But upon arrival at its destination, it slides out rearwards to allow easy access to the storage zones.

As the pod is withdrawn from the van, the area left behind is transformed into a mobile office. The front passenger seat swivels backwards on a curved rail to face a computer table, which drops down from the side of the van.

Although NV200 answers the specific needs of a professional underwater photographer with 'wet' and 'dry' storage zones in the pod for diving and camera equipment, the basic concept could be tailored to suit different customers, according to Nissan.

"A light commercial vehicle has a specific job to perform, but that's no reason to design a purely rational vehicle with no warmth. For NV200, function becomes the aesthetic. Our concept is a highly efficient tool but one with a human touch," says Shiro Nakamura, senior vice president and chief creative officer at Nissan.

"By having no pre-conceived ideas about what form NV200 should take, the team has developed a radical, futuristic, but entirely practical new concept."

This isn't the first time Nissan has concocted a vehicle designed for a very specific group of professionals.

Last year it gave us the Terranaut, which was pitched at "scientists, geologists, archaeologists or adventurers whose office is the great outdoors". The offbeat vehicle offered seating for three in a cabin that wouldn't have looked out of place in the USS Enterprise.

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