CITROEN van sales are at record levels and the manufacturer has boosted the fuel efficiency of Britain's most economic van and added a sliding door option to its Award-winning Berlingo line-up.

Launched at the show, all Berlingo LX specification vans can be delivered with a choice of a single nearside door (standard on Berlingo Electrique) costing £235 plus VAT or nearside and offside sliding side-load doors costing £400 plus VAT.

The new option has been introduced as part of the Berlingo's range development programme, which aims to continually extend the working capability of the line-up. Each of the side load doors provides a 550mm wide by 1,120mm high entry to the van's load compartment.

Citroen believes the option will increase the versatility of the award-winning Berlingo van for service engineers, electricians and other tradesmen, who need to rack-out van interiors to carry tools and small components.

Meanwhile, Citroen has also boosted its Relay van range with the addition of an all-new 2.8-litre HDi common rail diesel engine which replaces the 2.5 TDi 110bhp engine in the line-up. There remains 1.9-litre 71bhp and 2.5-litre 86bhp diesel engines in the Relay line-up. The new engine gives the Relay a 15% power increase to 127bhp, a 27% torque boost to 221lb-ft at 1,800rpm and a 4% fuel economy improvement.

The engine is available in Relay 1400 and 1800 medium and long wheelbase standard and high roof vans, 1400 and 1800 chassis cabs and 1800 chassis crew cabs. The Relay 1400 2.8 HDi medium wheelbase, standard roof van exhibited at the show costs £16,700 plus VAT.

It is expected that the new engine will also appear in the Peugeot Boxer and Fiat Ducato - Citroen's partners in development of the panel van range.

John Hargreaves, Citroen's commercial vehicle operations manager, said: 'We have increased our dealer focus on vans and as a result we are selling more vans. 18% of Citroen sales in the UK are vans the highest proportion of any van manufacturer with the exception of Mercedes-Benz.'