This month, Mercedes-Benz introduced it will be bringing production of its Marco Polo camper van in-house, primarily slicing Westfalia out of the Marco Polo enterprise it has been in for 42 years. Whereas that looks like an enormous hit to the world’s most beloved camper converter, do not cry too laborious for Westfalia. The German store really builds a greater Mercedes small camper van than Mercedes itself. The Jules Verne combines three-pointed star fashion with a Ford Nugget-like multi-room structure that features the total rest room the Marco Polo fully lacks.
Whereas we perceive the attraction of tenting at organized campgrounds with their very own bogs, perhaps even showers, what actually makes a camper van engaging is its capability to reside as self-sufficiently as attainable. A giant a part of that’s supplying its personal rest room – or on the very least, a bathroom. This is not merely important when primitive tenting in areas with none infrastructure or plumbing in any respect, it is also useful in letting campers keep away from overcrowded porta-johns at tailgates and music festivals and skip over rank, rarely-cleaned, fly-infested pit bogs in semi-primitive areas.
Fairly not like the Marco Polo – or the Volkswagen California, for that matter – the Westfalia Jules Verne has its personal rest room. And it is a fairly respectable one as far as bogs shoehorned into small pop-up camper vans go, bringing collectively an built-in bathroom and scorching bathe in a rear compartment that separates from the entrance through a roll-out privateness display screen.
CC Weiss/New Atlas
Westfalia launched the Jules Verne in 2016, smack in the midst of its work modernizing the Ford Nugget. Simply three years prior, the corporate had transported the Nugget’s split-room/rear kitchen idea to the brand-new Transit Customized, a smaller midsize various to Ford’s Transit industrial van, which had beforehand been the bottom of the Nugget. Westfalia utilized an identical floor-plan technique to the Jules Verne however trimmed down the kitchen and squeezed within the rear rest room that did not find its way to the Nugget until 2018.
Solely the Jules Verne’s rest room is even higher than the Nugget’s. Not like the lavatory in Ford’s camper, this one brings the bathe inside quite than leaving bathe customers exterior the tailgate. It warms that bathe with a Truma water heater and has an built-in bathe drain pan with a detachable ground panel to cowl it over when not in use. Additionally, not like the Nugget bathroom, the Jules’ Verne’s is break up extra discretely from the kitchen by a wardrobe closet containing the aforementioned roll-out privateness display screen … so it does not fairly really feel fairly as very similar to you are pooping in the midst of the kitchen.
The Jules Verne’s bragging rights over the Marco Polo do not cease on the rest room. Whereas structure choice will finally be completely different for every particular person purchaser, Ford and Westfalia have made an extended, robust case for the split-room idea (rear kitchen, entrance dwelling lounge/convertible mattress, upstairs full-time bed room) with the Nugget design. The Jules Verne carries an identical setup over to a Mercedes base van and arguably even improves on it slightly.
CC Weiss/New Atlas
Just like the Nugget, the Jules Verne features a front-facing rear bench with seatbelts, this one a two-seater. Westfalia provides in side-facing cushioned seats to create a wraparound couch lounge for camp, a characteristic the Nugget lacks. This lounge seats as much as 4 or 5 individuals across the eating desk as soon as the swivel cab seats swing round and features a chaise lounge for additional consolation throughout the day. At night time, it converts over right into a 68 x 47-in (172 x 120-cm) double mattress – markedly shorter however barely wider than the Marco Polo’s 80 x 44-in decrease mattress.
The Jules Verne does not have fairly as discrete or giant a kitchen space because the Ford Nugget – the worth to pay for the total moist rest room with bathe – however the facet kitchen’s placement towards the rear of the van does seem to be a extra devoted, handy house than the widespread kitchen placement proper subsequent to the seating bench/mattress, as within the Marco Polo. It comes stocked with a dual-burner gasoline range and sink on that passenger-side block and a 51-L compressor fridge within the tall cupboard throughout the aisle.
Westfalia
The Jules Verne’s pop-up roof stands at reversed orientation in comparison with the Marco Polo, opening up the best standing room on the rear of the van over the lavatory space. It nonetheless homes a fold-up double mattress measuring 75 x 46 in (190 x 117 cm), accessible through a folding rear ladder.
Different commonplace gear aboard the Jules Verne features a 92-Ah leisure battery, 2,000-W Webasto heater, 50-L recent water tank and 36-L waste water tank.
In fact, the Jules Verne does not outperform the Marco Polo in each class. To begin with, the Marco Polo makes a a lot better first impression because of the sleeker fashion of the V-Class passenger van beneath. The Jules Verne has at all times been based mostly on Mercedes’ Vito industrial van, which does not arrive fairly as gussied up.
Mercedes-Benz
That base van differential comes into play past aesthetics, too. The Marco Polo comes outfitted with the next automotive commonplace gear spec that begins with a 161-hp 2.0-liter diesel engine/nine-speed automated transmission versus the 134-hp diesel 2.0/six-speed guide transmission within the Jules Verne. All-wheel drive is optionally available for each camper vans.
The Marco Polo cockpit additionally rises a number of rungs above the Jules Verne, although those who want a less complicated analog setting will in all probability just like the latter higher. The Marco Polo brings in a full-width digital instrument panel/infotainment show as commonplace. That MBUX infotainment touchscreen additionally ties into the usual MBAC sensible residence system for management of camper options like lighting and heating, a system can be tapped into utilizing the accompanying smartphone app.
Mercedes-Benz
Whereas the Jules Verne does come commonplace with a 10-in MBUX touchscreen, it doesn’t embrace MBAC connectivity or the digital devices. Different commonplace options that include the V-Class-based Marco Polo however not the Vito-top Jules Verne embrace Lively Parking Help with reverse-camera system and Distronic energetic distance help. Each can be found as optionally available upgrades on the Jules Verne.
To our eye, the Marco Polo provides a greater, higher-spec base van, however the Jules Verne boasts the higher camper structure, particularly for a household with youngsters that may match comfortably on the quick folding mattress. The Jules Verne additionally undercuts the €80,664 (approx. US$95,250) Marco Polo with a €74,180 ($87,575) base worth.
Observe that worth is for the present 2025 Marco Polo, not the up to date 2026 mannequin that Mercedes will likely be constructing in-house – MY2026 pricing has not but been introduced.
Sources: Westfalia and Mercedes-Benz
