DETROIT — Nissan dealers who sign up for the company's new line of light commercial vehicles will get more than big trucks to sell.

Other likely products for the United States: small vans, taxis, wagons and pickups unavailable to other Nissan dealers. The first vehicles go on sale in 2010.

Nissan North America originally hinted only that commercial dealers would receive a trio of trucks designed and engineered at its Michigan r&d center in suburban Detroit. But that is just the beginning, says Joe Castelli, Nissan North America's vice president for light commercial vehicles and fleet.

The new business also will consider various vehicles, including imports from Japan. One possible model: a van based on Nissan's small car platform that yields the Versa sedan and will carry next year's Cube.

Nissan is targeting the smaller half of the commercial truck business, with gross vehicle weights of up to 8,000 pounds. The market leaders in those segments include Ford Motor Co.'s E-series van and F-250, F-350 and F-450 pickups, and General Motors' Savanna van.

Ford plans to dip into smaller commercial vehicles. Next year it will introduce the urban-oriented Transit Connect van as an import.

About one-third of Nissan's 1,070 dealers have expressed interest in becoming commercial dealers, Castelli said.

To become a commercial dealer, the retailers must agree to a list of changes, some of which are still being formulated. One critical issue will be building larger service-bay doors and installing vehicle lifts capable of raising 30,000 pounds.

"The trucks themselves won't be that heavy," Castelli explains, "but what are you going to do when a customer in the carpet business brings his van in for service and it has thousands of pounds of carpeting in the back? You're not going to ask him to unload it."

Dealers will have to offer expanded service hours, adds Mike Hobson, director of sales for the business unit. That will mean providing overnight and weekend service, because owners in the new segment typically rely on their vehicles for their livelihood.

The dealers also will need to become proficient in diesels since some of the models will have diesel engines.

Nissan is partnering with Cummins Inc. for diesel engines.