US car sales analysis 2021 Q1-Q3 – Minivans

Minivan sales in the US are up 18% in the first three quarters of 2021, beating the overall market which is up 13%, as two of the remaining players in the class more than double their sales of last year. Minivans now accounts for 2% of the overall car market, up from 1.9% in the same period of 2020. In Q3, minivan sales were down 9% in an overall market down 13%.

Production of the old timer Dodge Grand Caravan ended last exactly a year ago in August 2020, and the model sold just 89 units in the third quarter, indicating stocks are drying up. Its stablemate Chrysler Pacifica was supposed to take over segment leadership, also helped by the low-budget version Chrysler Voyager. The couple of two nameplates for the same vehicle briefly took the title of best performing minivan of 2020 and continued on that strong performance in the first quarter of this year, but has fallen flat since. The Pacifica is down into third place with sales down 7% on last year. Apparently, Stellantis is struggling more than the others with the chip shortages. The new leader is the Toyota Sienna, up almost threefold on last year thanks to the new generation, with standard hybrid technology. The Sienna improves its share of the class by over 20 percentage points to 35.6% so far this year (38.7% in Q3). In second place we now find the Honda Odyssey, up 13% on last year. The all-new Kia Carnival more than doubles the sales of its predecessor Sedona last year, but remains below 9% share of the class for now, althoug it was up to 13.5% in the third quarter.

US minivan sales 2021 – Q1-Q3

	Minivan segment	2021 – Q1-Q3	2020 – Q1-Q3	Change	2021 Share	2020 Share
1	Toyota Sienna	83.447	28.781	190%	35,6%	14,5%
2	Honda Odyssey	67.441	59.691	13%	28,8%	30,0%
3	Chrysler Pacifica	59.502	64.290	-7%	25,4%	32,3%
4	Kia Carnival/Sedona	20.898	10.131	106%	8,9%	5,1%
5	Dodge Grand Caravan	2.956	36.155	-92%	1,3%	18,2%
	Segment total	234.244	199.048	18%

Source: Manufacturers.