One of the most buzzworthy new automaker camper vans of 2024 is getting even better in 2025. Ford has debuted a new long-wheelbase variant of its small, efficient Nugget camper van, and this one packs a fully installed toilet ... as well as the kitchen sink. The new indoor toilet room joins existing Nugget features like a multi-room design, PHEV powertrain and all-wheel drive to make the new Nugget family better than ever before, more than capable of giving the new VW California a run for its money.
Ford first revealed the latest Nugget generation at the 2023 Düsseldorf Caravan Salon, following up a year later with several additional models. The all-new Nugget was the headliner of what Ford qualifies a record-breaking year for its camper vans, which recorded 10,000 new registrations and a market share of 13.5% in 2024 in Germany, Europe's largest RV market.
The new Nugget series should only get more popular with the addition of a toilet. Ford has debuted the latest Nugget variant at the 2024 CMT show in Stuttgart, Germany, celebrating its return to the show after 16 years without hosting a booth. Interestingly, it doesn't refer to the new 545-cm (215-in) model as the Nugget Plus, calling it the Ford Nugget camper van with a long wheelbase and a permanently integrated toilet. We'd go back to the simpler "Plus" if we were Ford, but we'll see how that shakes out.
The longer L2 wheelbase adds the extra 40 cm (16 in) Ford needs to slide a rear toilet compartment in just behind the rear kitchen. We imagine the newest model will keep the previous Nugget Plus' slide-out privacy screen to separate the cassette toilet from the kitchen, and we also imagine the best way for actual privacy will be for everyone else to evacuate the van when the bathroom is in use.
Instead of eating up space with a redundant bathroom sink, Ford lets campers simply use the kitchen sink just diagonal to the toilet. We've never been thrilled with the idea of toilet-soiled hands floating over top the kitchen counter (and possibly actual food) to get clean, but sacrifices must be made when shoehorning homey comforts into a relatively small van.
Plus, by not trying to install a larger, more fixture-heavy bathroom, Ford is able to maintain what makes the Nugget so cool and functional to begin with: its three-zone floor plan concept. Unlike in other mid-size van campers, including the VW California, the Nugget has complete separation of its kitchen and living/dining lounge areas, providing a little more flexibility and comfort at camp (e.g. one person can enjoy cooking in the kitchen while the others remain comfortably seated out of the way).
The dining lounge converts over into a double bed, teaming with the fixed bed in the third room – the pop-up roof – to give the Nugget sleeping space for a total of four people. And with the long-wheelbase model, those four people no longer have to worry about digging and squatting over a cat hole.
We suppose the new toilet area also makes it more something of a 3.5-zone floor plan – we'll give the toilet area a 0.5 given its lack of walls and size.
The new Nugget-toilet (you really need to bring that "Plus" back, Ford) unveiled at CMT also features a 365-watt solar panel developed in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Center for Silicon Photovoltaics. The power-dense module is designed to supply self-sufficient levels of power to all 12-V appliances on board, freeing the leisure battery to supply the higher-voltage equipment.
Ford has not yet announced pricing for the Nugget LWB with toilet, nor has it confirmed if the new floor plan will be available in vans with all powertrain options. However, the rear toilet model follows the separate long-wheelbase Nugget that Ford unveiled last year, and that L2 version does offer both PHEV and AWD powertrain options. This alternative 545-cm Nugget has extra rear wardrobe and kitchen storage in place of the toilet and starts at €79,314 (approx. US$82,650) with PHEV powertrain or €81,694 (US$85,125) with AWD, both prices including VAT.
Assuming Ford offers the rear toilet floor plan with all powertrain options, the Nugget LWB-toilet will have a unique combination of attributes that includes an efficient plug-in hybrid ride, a pop-up design with multi-zone floor plan, and an interior toilet.
As for that efficient hybrid ride, the 229-hp front-wheel-drive Transit Custom van the Nugget is based on offers up to 56 km (35 miles) of pure-electric driving before it has to tap into the gas reserves fueling the 2.5-liter Atkinson cycle engine.
While Ford's all-electric mileage bested Volkswagen back in 2023, VW has since equipped the California camper van with a 241-hp second-generation plug-in hybrid system boasting up to 80 km (50 miles) of pure-electric range. And that PHEV system also offers integrated 4Motion all-wheel drive.
Volkswagen wins in terms of on-paper hybrid capability, but Ford's addition of the rear toilet room the VW California has always lacked gives the Nugget a definite advantage of its own. We'd certainly be willing to give up the extra 24 km (15 miles) of all-electric range for a built-in toilet, but the California's all-wheel drive does make the decision tougher.
Either way, we think Ford has managed to step the agelessly adorable Nugget up to a new level of attractiveness that keeps it seriously competitive ... so long as it gives it a name better than "Ford Nugget long-wheelbase with permanently integrated toilet."
Source: Ford Europe