The Dusseldorf Caravan Salon is the largest ‘mobile leisure’ show in the world. Since it’s located an easy five-hour drive from Calais, we hopped onto the Eurotunnel to experience the 2025 event for ourselves, and came away staggered by the variety and range of campervans and motorhomes on display.
While Ford, Mercedes and Volkswagen were all in attendance – on adjacent stands, no less – their presence was dwarfed by the all the major third-party campervan converters and motorhome constructors. With vast areas demonstrating an almost dizzying array of layouts and finishes, not to mention sales areas where money was clearly changing hands, the Dusseldorf show represents a unique opportunity for buyers to examine and compare rival products directly.
And it is a huge event. Encompassing 15 halls at the enormous Messe Dusseldorf exhibition grounds, over 269,000 people passed through the doors this year during the 10-day show. If you’re in the market for a camper, it makes the NEC equivalents in Birmingham look very modest.
Dusseldorf Caravan Salon 2025 Top 10
It would be impossible for us to cover it all. So instead we’ve highlighted 10 things that really stood out to us – consider this a warm-up act for your own trip next year…
Caselani Fiat 616N
The Fiat Ducato has long been a favourite of campervan and motorhome makers, and the Fiat has whole departments dedicated to making them happy – so there were plenty on display at Dusseldorf 2025, and you might find another lower down this list. But it’s also safe to say that none of the others looked like this.
Making its world premier at the show, this Caselani Fiat 616N gives the Ducato a retro-style redesign in tribute to the old Fiat 616 truck of the 1960s. But it wasn’t just the outside that caught our eyes here. At the back, the onboard bathroom is placed adjacent to one of the rear doors, yet still kept separate from the kitchen area.
Hymer Venture S
Hymer is a very well known, long-established motorhome firm, and the Venture S is one of its newest products. An overlander-style off-road motorhome conversion based on a Mercedes Sprinter 4x4 platform, it stood out to us against a background of many similar vehicles at the Dusseldorf Show because of its clever design details. Evidence of this on the outside includes the rear deck / balcony area and the inflatable pop-top sides that offer insulation against colder weather.
Meanwhile on the inside there’s an expanding bathroom area that pulls out from the side wall of the living space when you need to use it, creating a more generous recreational area when you don’t. And a full staircase incorporating hidden storage in place of the usual ladder to access the upper sleeping area. Prices start at £210,090, so it’s not a casual purchase by any means. But it did look seriously good.
Carado CV541 Pro
Another effort aimed at people venturing away from the beaten path is this much lower-cost Carado CV541 Pro. Priced from £61,490, it too stood out at Dusseldorf 2025 due to some attractively executed and unusual design details – not least of which was also a proper built-in staircase that doubles as a storage area. To find this in a compact, Ducato van-based conversion was quite unexpected.
With that handy roof sleeping access, a rear lounge/dining area and generously proportioned forward bathroom, it felt to us like Carado had really emphasised making the CV541 Pro as convenient to use as possible. The display van’s off-road detailing and chunky exterior racking gave it punchy visual presence, too. Probably our favourite exhibit of the entire Caravan Salon.
Updated VW Grand California
While the changes are small for the 2025 Volkswagen Grand California – being limited to interior finishes and some extra high-tech kit – it was still good to see the firm continuing to take life beyond the smaller California seriously. The limited-edition Grand California Dune, which isn’t yet confirmed for sale in the UK, seems like an attractive addition to the range as well.
The Grand California is our favourite Volkswagen campervan. It’s great to drive, offers a large amount of space, and is competitively priced compared with the third-party converters. The updates, which include a new floor finish, a black tap for the kitchen sink and the ability to use the interior table outside are all worthy upgrades. Read our full VW Grand California review.
Ford Nugget
Ford is taking its time getting the new generation of Nugget campervan ready for UK sales, but there were multiple examples on display at Dusseldorf 2025, including the fixed raised-roof model. As ever, it’s good to see a manufacturer challenging the VW California with some genuine alternatives, and the interior layout of even the pop-roof Nugget is different to the Volkswagen.
Which suits you is going to be down to how much you like sleeping with your feet in a cupboard. Or how much you mind climbing the front seats to get to the top bed versus going up a ladder where you’ll be exposed to the elements. UK pricing may help up a few minds, too, but there’s still no sign of that at the moment.
HMT carbonfibre… habitat
One of the less obviously interesting exhibits was this container-like construction from Chinese firm HMT. That’s Habitation | Mobility | Technology, apparently, and a company better known for making airbags, as far as we can make out. But this box with windows was an interesting take on the overlanding scene, as it promises an all-in-one solution with an emphasis on sustainability and safety.
Designed to be dropped onto the back of a suitable chassis – such as an Iveco Daily chassis cab – it features toughened security glass, a water recycling system, eco-friendly toilet facilities and comes loaded with batteries to allow you to off-grid for longer. Best of all, it’s made of carbonfibre, meaning the fully kitted two-person module on display weighed-in at just 1,250kg.
Beauer 3x
A couple of solutions for those of you unwilling to eject from your existing cars coming up now, starting with the expanding caravan range from Beauer. And we do literally mean expanding, as although these unusually old-fashioned-looking tow-alongs are less than two metres wide when traveling then double or triple in width when in situ for camping.
A demo had been set up on the stand which meant we could see one expand and contract electrically in a couple of minutes. But what’s really clever about these is that they still come with proper fixtures and fittings inside – they simply (or probably not so simply) fold up when the caravan is ready to roll. Quite amazing.
Roofroomer Native
Got a tow hook but don’t like towing? Well, the Roofroomer Native could be for you. It’s a similar concept to those camper backs available for pickup trucks – something Roofroomer also makes – but the Native version is designed for cars instead. Well, probably SUVs more realistically, but you get the idea. A world first, according to Roofroomer.
Demonstrated at Dusseldorf atop a Range Rover Velar, the Native has room inside for a full-sized sleeping space for two, a kitchen and a bathroom area. A set of detachable legs allows you to mount it – or leave it while you explore – and it bolts to the vehicle’s existing roof rails and tow bar. Ingenious, if also rather cramped.
Castello self-build
There are plenty of self-build camper van solutions, but Castello has surely got to have one of the most unusual examples on the market. All of its panelling and many of its fixtures and fittings are adorned with evenly spaced slots, literally turning the inside of the vehicle into a giant pegboard.
So, if you’re the sort of person who can never quite make a final decision, this could be for you – as instead of permanently mounting things, the Castello Cargo Clips mean you move things about as required. It all comes neatly flatpacked, too, so if you’re a dab-hand at Ikea you should have no problem getting on the road here.
Indoor-outdoor kitchen solutions
Finally, these aren’t especially new, but they do offer some additional flexibility when camping in milder climates: we saw a couple of campervans at the show with kitchen areas on hinged mountings near the side door. Giving you the option to cook outside as well as inside, should the mood take you.
If you’re the kind of person who likes a barbeque – or perhaps doesn’t like to make everything inside the van smell like your last meal – this seems like a really versatile way of getting your Gordon Ramsey on. Definitely something we’d look out for when considering a multipurpose machine.
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