One Box Type

A one box van indicates a compact commercial vehicle and its derivative, which is a passenger vehicle, with no bonnet or an extremely short bonnet and a box-shaped body.

Monocorps means looking at the space in the body as a box and having a single space, and the word Monocorps car originated from and is used in Japan, which indicates a car with that body style.

However, the cab over is the main structure among this body style of cars. It is difficult to distinguish between rear engine, under floor midship, and semi-cab over from the appearance, and because the number of these is relatively small, it is categorized in a single cab over type. Automakers were calling commercial vehicles with a box cargo compartment for cargo protection and prioritized loadability as vans, and passenger vehicles that assigned the box for a living space and comfortability as wagons.

With the extension of business in this style, it is called the Monocorps car to differentiate from the two-box style light van with a bonnet in commercial vehicles and a sedan-based station/estate wagon in passenger vehicles.

Since the driver’s seat is in the high position of the front overhang, the parting of the front end is especially good and the space above the engine room can be utilized, so it has a superior capacity compared to the same size bonnet type.

On the other hand, the pitch, the roll, and the yaw tend to be larger for the shortness of the wheelbase to the full length and the height of the vehicle, so road holding is bad and it is difficult to bring the stability and the driveability to the same level as passenger cars with a low height.