Cavan C1 vs Fiat Scudo

What's the difference?

It was, of course, inevitable that electric cargo vans would fall in price. Even allowing for the front-loading of running costs inherent in an EV, the fact that many cargo vans are company-owned and, therefore, purchased largely on price, meant somebody would hit the market with a cheapie that did the job.

In Australia, the cut-price last-mile vans include the Kia PV5 EV and Farizon V7E, both with price-tags under $56,000. The Farizon was the title-holder at sub-$50K drive-away, but a newcomer called the Cavan C1 rewrites that script with a starting price of under $45,000, drive-away, for the cheapest version.

A sub-brand of Chinese behemoth Foton, the Cavan brand will be distributed and retailed in Australia by a separate company to Inchcape (the local Foton distributor) and at the moment, there’s but a single dealership (in Melbourne’s south-east suburbs). That will surely change, however, as deliveries ramp up and the word gets out. In fact, as we go to press, a second dealership, also in Melbourne, has been announced.

About a decade has passed since the Fiat Scudo mid-size (2.5-3.5 tonne GVM) van was last sold in Australia, when it shared its underpinnings with the Peugeot Expert before Fiat-Chrysler and PSA (Peugeot-Citroën) merged to become the giant Stellantis group in 2021.

In 2026 the Scudo (which means ‘shield’ in Italian) has returned under the Fiat Professional Australia banner as the Series 3 or third-generation, again sharing its underpinnings and core styling with the Peugeot Expert but now based on the latest Stellantis 'EMP2' platform.

We recently spent a working week aboard Fiat’s new commercial offering to see how it measures up from a tradie’s perspective in this popular van segment.