Large MPV sales in Europe continue to freefall in the first three quarters of 2020. At just under 40,000 deliveries in the first nine months of the year, sales are down 45% on last year as the share of the large MPV segment falls from 0.6% in 2019 to 0.5% so far in 2020.
All nameplates in this segment lose more than 37% of their sales on last year, trailing the overall market which falls 28% so far this year. Only the top-3 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 37% decline in sales. Its sibling Volkswagen Sharan stays in third place as VW Group improves its share of the class to 53.5%, up from 49.2% 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. Ford now also has a 7-seat SUV with the American Explorer PHEV, although that’s a whole different kind of beast. Still, Ford’s two MPV models see their sales decline by 43% or more, with a total of just 16,000 deliveries so far in 2020. The S-Max takes the biggest chunk of that figure, while the Galaxy remains a slow seller. The Renault Espace has just been updated but a loss of 69% makes it the worst performer of the class at fewer than 280 monthly deliveries.
| Large MPV segment | 2020 Q1-Q3 | 2019 Q1-Q3 | Change | 2020 share | 2020-Q3 | |
| 1 | Seat Alhambra | 11.945 | 19.108 | -37% | 29,9% | 4.673 |
| 2 | Ford S-Max | 10.079 | 17.888 | -44% | 25,2% | 4.240 |
| 3 | Volkswagen Sharan | 9.437 | 16.463 | -43% | 23,6% | 3.751 |
| 4 | Ford Galaxy | 5.947 | 10.367 | -43% | 14,9% | 2.635 |
| 5 | Renault Espace | 2.507 | 8.143 | -69% | 6,3% | 1.086 |
| 6 | SsangYong Rodius / Stavic | 4 | 341 | -99% | 0,0% | 0 |
| Segment total | 39.919 | 72.310 | -45% |
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.