VAN Man is getting a longer drive with a little help from Volkswagen's new Caddy.

Fitted with plenty of eco-friendly technology, the latest Caddy is the greenest van of its kind with a potential range of more than 730 miles.

Average fuel consumption has been increased to 55.4mpg compared to 49.6 in the previous generation of VW's top selling medium sized van.

The Caddy BlueMotion will go on sale in November at the same time as VW launches a new Caddy line up priced from £15,067 to £22,690, including VAT.

Overall that's a four per cent increase over the current model but the BlueMotion versions have come down in price. The 75bhp engined eco Caddy will cost from £15,537 with the more practical 102bhp model priced from 316,359.

The BlueMotion technology uses a 1.6-litre diesel engine and it is fitted in both the standard Caddy and the longer wheelbase Caddy Maxi.

Top speed from the 102bhp version is 106mph with 0 to 60 acceleration of 12.9 seconds and there is enough pulling power to justify the running cost savings. The 75bhp tops out at 94mph with a more laboured acceleration time of 17.6 seconds.

CO2 emissions on the more powerful engine are now 134g/km - down from 149 in the original BlueMotion van.

Like VW's BlueMotion cars the Caddy vans have stop/start systems which automatically switch off the engine when the van comes to rest in traffic.

They are also fitted with low rolling resistance tyres and to help fuel economy further there are also aerodynamic tweaks around the wheel arches.

A hill start assist system and cruise control are fitted as standard as is a gearshift indicator - now used across the entire Caddy range.

Compared to the standard Caddy the versions with the BlueMotion technology cost £400 more - an outlay VW claims can be recouped in the first 5,000 miles thanks to the great fuel efficiency.

The new Caddy vans have more angular styling with restyled lamp clusters in line with the latest design features introduced on the larger VW Transporter vans and the new Amarok pick-up.

Inside the new Caddys are very car like. The latest vans have a lid on the glove box, can be fitted with state of the art sat nav systems and have steering wheel mounted controls for the audio and trip computer.

As before, the Caddy will be available as a panel van, a window van or as an MPV which, like the Caddy Maxi, is available with four-wheel-drive.

Semi-automatic DSG gearboxes is also available in the range which in the UK is all diesel.

For extra safety electronic stability and traction control is standard as is a regulator to stop wheelslip under heavy braking.