The passenger van segment in Europe is down 16% in the first quarter of 2022, trailing the overall market, down 13%. Small passenger vans are the biggest contributor to this loss at -38%, with midsized passenger vans down 3% and large passenger vans, mostly sold as camper vans, were up 6%. As a whole, the passenger van segment now has a share of 3% of the total European car market, down from 3.2% last year.
The share mall passenger vans now make up just a third of the van segment, down from 44% last year. The Stellantis-Toyota quadruples see a 57% drop in deliveries now that they’re almost exclusively available with electric powertrains. Their share of the class drops from 58.2% last year to 40.1% this quarter. The Toyota Proace City Verso is the most popular of the four, as it’s still available with internal combustions engines, but it too is outsold by the Volkswagen Caddy Life, up 2% thanks to the new generation. Also helped by a new generation, the Renault Kangoo with its clones Mercedes-Benz Citan and Nissan Townstar move into third place with sales tripling on a relatively low base last year. The Ford Tourneo Connect is down 16% as it’s due to be replaced by Ford’s own version of the Caddy, as the two brands have started a cooperation in commercial vehicles. The Nissan NV200 Evalia, Ford Tourneo Courier, Fiat Doblo and Dacia Dokker are due to be pulled from the market. Fiat will most likely get its own version of the Stellantis vans.
2022-Q1 – small passenger van sales Europe
| Small passenger van segment | 2022-Q1 | 2021-Q1 | Change | 2022 share | 2021 share | |
| 1 | Volkswagen Caddy Life | 8.656 | 8.519 | 2% | 32,5% | 19,9% |
| 2 | Toyota Proace City Verso | 3.313 | 3.490 | -5% | 12,5% | 8,1% |
| 3 | Renault Kangoo | 3.288 | 1.423 | 131% | 12,4% | 3,3% |
| 4 | Peugeot Rifter | 3.114 | 7.874 | -60% | 11,7% | 18,4% |
| 5 | Ford Tourneo Connect | 2.266 | 2.700 | -16% | 8,5% | 6,3% |
| 6 | Citroën Berlingo Multispace | 2.201 | 8.972 | -75% | 8,3% | 20,9% |
| 7 | Opel/Vauxhall Combo Tour | 2.040 | 4.656 | -56% | 7,7% | 10,9% |
| 8 | Mercedes-Benz Citan Combi | 807 | 138 | 485% | 3,0% | 0,3% |
| 9 | Nissan Townstar | 629 | 0 | New | 2,4% | 0,0% |
| 10 | Nissan NV200 Evalia | 148 | 449 | -67% | 0,6% | 1,0% |
| 11 | Ford Tourneo Courier | 92 | 1.279 | -93% | 0,3% | 3,0% |
| 12 | Fiat Doblo | 50 | 129 | -61% | 0,2% | 0,3% |
| 13 | Dacia Dokker | 2 | 3.280 | -100% | 0,0% | 7,6% |
| Segment total | 26.606 | 42.909 | -38% |
Midsized Passenger Van segment
Midsized passenger vans improve their share of the van segment from 35% last year to 40% in the first quarter of 2022. The Volkswagen Transporter remains dominant with sales up 1% to improve its share of the class to 38.7%. The Stellantis-Toyota triplets are also up 1% and improve their share to 26.5%. Here too the Toyota has become the best seller of the four. They will soon become quintuplets when the Fiat e-Ulysse joins them. However, these too will soon only be available as EV, which is expected to hurt their sales volume as it has with the smaller vans. The Ford Tourneo Custom is up 8% and improves its share to 20.7%. The Mercedes-Benz Vito loses a quarter of its sales on last year, but the Renault Trafic/Nissan Primastar twins do even worse at -30%. Last year they lost the Opel Vivaro from their partnership, and this year the Fiat Talento was also dropped as it defected to the Stellantis partnership. Niche players Maxus Euniq 5 and Hyundai Staria are unable to gain a meaningful foothold in Europe.
2022-Q1 – midsized passenger van sales Europe
| Midsized passenger van segment | 2022-Q1 | 2021-Q1 | Change | 2022 share | 2021 share | |
| 1 | Volkswagen Transporter | 12.677 | 12.505 | 1% | 38,7% | 37,0% |
| 2 | Ford Tourneo Custom | 6.779 | 6.290 | 8% | 20,7% | 18,6% |
| 3 | Toyota Proace Verso | 3.125 | 2.124 | 47% | 9,5% | 6,3% |
| 4 | Mercedes-Benz Vito Tourer | 3.073 | 4.123 | -25% | 9,4% | 12,2% |
| 5 | Opel/Vauxhall Zafira Life | 2.671 | 2.463 | 8% | 8,1% | 7,3% |
| 6 | Citroën Spacetourer | 1.662 | 1.917 | -13% | 5,1% | 5,7% |
| 7 | Renault Trafic Passenger | 1.311 | 1.722 | -24% | 4,0% | 5,1% |
| 8 | Peugeot Traveller | 1.237 | 2.134 | -42% | 3,8% | 6,3% |
| 9 | Nissan NV300 | 126 | 170 | -26% | 0,4% | 0,5% |
| 10 | Maxus Euniq 5 | 104 | 157 | -34% | 0,3% | 0,5% |
| 11 | Hyundai Staria | 14 | 0 | New | 0,0% | 0,0% |
| 12 | Fiat Talento | 8 | 184 | -96% | 0,0% | 0,5% |
| Segment total | 32.787 | 33.789 | -3% |
Large Passenger Van segment
For the first time, we’re also able to share the large passenger van segment for Europe, which are mostly sold as camper vans by taxi companies. Their sales are up 6% in the first quarter of 2022, growing their share of the van segment from 21% to 27%. The Fiat Ducato has been ultra dominant thanks to good relations with coachbuilders for camper vans. However, its deliveries are down 12% so far this year and it loses almost 10 percentage points of share to drop below 50%. Its sibling Citroën Jumper makes up for some of the losses at +22% to grow its share to 18.7%. Best performer this year is the Ford Transit Tourneo at +120% into third place, moving ahead of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter which is up 6%. The Volkswagen Crafter is down 22%, the Renault Master is down 11% and the Peugeot Boxer is down 25%. The Master’s clone Nissan Interstar remains a niche player and so does the Opel Movano which used to be its siblign too. The latter has moved from the Renault partnership to the Stellantis stable, even though this means it has actually moved onto an older platform than it was before.
2022-Q1 – large passenger van sales Europe
| Large passenger van segment | 2022-Q1 | 2021-Q1 | Change | 2022 share | 2021 share | |
| 1 | Fiat Ducato | 10.440 | 11.850 | -12% | 39,2% | 27,6% |
| 2 | Citroën Jumper | 4.101 | 3.354 | 22% | 15,4% | 7,8% |
| 3 | Ford Transit Tourneo | 3.722 | 1.689 | 120% | 14,0% | 3,9% |
| 4 | Mercedes-Benz Sprinter Combi | 2.164 | 2.051 | 6% | 8,1% | 4,8% |
| 5 | Volkswagen Crafter | 657 | 847 | -22% | 2,5% | 2,0% |
| 6 | Renault Master | 413 | 464 | -11% | 1,6% | 1,1% |
| 7 | Peugeot Boxer | 325 | 433 | -25% | 1,2% | 1,0% |
| 8 | Nissan NV400/Interstar | 20 | 3 | 567% | 0,1% | 0,0% |
| 9 | Opel Movano | 4 | 15 | -73% | 0,0% | 0,1% |
| Segment total | 21.846 | 20.706 | 6% |
Car sales statistics are from the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.
Sources: Manufacturers, ANDC, JATO Dynamics.