Sales of large MPVs in Europe continue to freefall in 2020. At just under 52,500 deliveries, sales are down 43% on 2019 as the share of the large MPV segment falls from 0.6% in 2019 to 0.4% in 2020.
All nameplates in this segment lose more than 36% of their sales on last year, trailing the overall market which fell 24% in 2020. Only the two best sellers of the class manage to sell more than 1,000 monthly units in 2020, and considering Europe is the only market for these models, one can imagine why manufacturers aren’t investing much in new product anymore. The Seat Alhambra stays on top of the ranking and is the best performing model with a 36% decline in sales. Its sibling Volkswagen Sharan stays in third place as VW Group only slightly improves its share of the class to 50.8%, up from 50.5% in the same period of last year. With the Volkswagen Tiguan Allspace and Seat Tarraco, the brands have 7-seat alternatives in the crossover segment and the MPVs are unlikely to be overhauled to a new generation. Their biggest rival in the class is Ford, which now also has a 7-seat SUV as well with the Explorer PHEV imported from the USA, although that’s an entirely different kind of vehicle. The Ford S-Max sees its sales tumble 41% while the Galaxy also outperforms the class at -36%. The Renault Espace has been updated and finished the year relatively strong as the only nameplate to actually sell more than in Q4 of 2019. It went from an average of fewer than 280 monhly deliveries in the first three quarters of 2020 to more than 600 per month in the last quarter. As a result, the Espace reduces its full-year loss to -55%, still the worst performer of the class.
| Large MPV segment | 2020 | 2019 | Change | 2020 share | 2019 share | 2020-Q4 | |
| 1 | Seat Alhambra | 15.179 | 23.840 | -36% | 28,9% | 25,9% | 3.234 |
| 2 | Ford S-Max | 13.375 | 22.724 | -41% | 25,5% | 24,7% | 3.296 |
| 3 | Volkswagen Sharan | 11.473 | 22.665 | -49% | 21,9% | 24,6% | 2.036 |
| 4 | Ford Galaxy | 8.018 | 12.554 | -36% | 15,3% | 13,6% | 2.071 |
| 5 | Renault Espace | 4.390 | 9.744 | -55% | 8,4% | 10,6% | 1.883 |
| 6 | SsangYong Rodius / Stavic | 4 | 532 | -99% | 0,0% | 0,6% | 0 |
| Segment total | 52.439 | 92.059 | -43% |
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.