The passenger van segment in Europe is down by 30% in the first three quarters of 2020 to just over 262,000 sales. Small passenger vans account for 54% of these with sales down 32% and midsized passenger vans for the remaining 46% as this subsegment loses 28% of its sales so far this year.
The Volkswagen Transporter T6 and its luxury derivative Multivan stay ahead of the midsized passenger van segment, despite sales down 37% and a declining share. They now hold 31.8% of the segment but stay ahead of the combination of the Mercedes-Benz V-Class and Vito Tourer, which total 30,875 sales for a share up to 28.9% with sales down 22%. The PSA-Toyota quadruplets are in third place with a combined 23,300 sales, down 16%. The latest addition Opel/Vauxhall Zafira Life is now in 2nd place of the four, behind the Toyota Proace Verso but ahead of the Peugeot Traveller/Expert and Citroën Spacetourer/Jumpy. The Renault Trafic and its clones Fiat Talento and Nissan NV300 are down 56% to 10,300 sales as the Trafic has only just been facelifted. Fiat will join the PSA set again, leaving the Renault Partnership after just one generation of the Talento. The Ford Tourneo Custom has already moved ahead of the Trafic and co. and is in 2nd place when comparing nameplates separately, with 17,750 sales, down 14% while the Hyundai H1 remains a niche player with just 528 sales so far this year.
2020 Q1-Q3 midsized passenger van sales Europe
| Midsized passenger van segment | 2020 Q1-Q3 | 2019 Q1-Q3 | Change | Share | ||
| 1 | Volkswagen Transporter / Multivan | 33.965 | 53.925 | -37% | 28,9% | 13.876 |
| 2 | Ford Tourneo Custom | 17.754 | 20.561 | -14% | 15,1% | 0 |
| 3 | Mercedes-Benz V-Class | 17.732 | 22.094 | -20% | 15,1% | 6.890 |
| 4 | Mercedes-Benz Vito Tourer | 13.143 | 17.515 | -25% | 11,2% | 5.367 |
| 5 | Renault Trafic Passenger | 7.973 | 9.284 | -14% | 6,8% | 2.314 |
| 6 | Toyota Proace Verso | 6.601 | 8.228 | -20% | 5,6% | 2.776 |
| 7 | Opel/Vauxhall Zafira Life | 6.383 | 0 | New | 5,4% | 2.229 |
| 8 | Peugeot Traveller | 5.887 | 9.574 | -39% | 5,0% | 2.586 |
| 9 | Citroën Spacetourer | 4.410 | 9.764 | -55% | 3,7% | 2.158 |
| 10 | Fiat Talento | 1.508 | 3.343 | -55% | 1,3% | 715 |
| 11 | Opel/Vauxhall Vivaro Tour | 980 | 6.974 | -86% | 0,8% | 491 |
| 12 | Nissan NV300 | 838 | 767 | 9% | 0,7% | 397 |
| 13 | Hyundai H1 / Starex | 528 | 2.084 | -75% | 0,4% | 176 |
| Segment total | 117.702 | 164.113 | -28% |
Small Passenger Van segment
Sales of small passenger vans are down 32% and the Volkswagen Caddy is still the leader when looking at individual nameplates, improving its share to just over 24% thanks to sales down 17%. Its nearest three rivals all lose more than 23%, but the Peugeot Rifter, Citroën Berlingo and Opel/Vauxhall Combo triplets easily manage to be the best seller combined, and with the addition of the fourth sibling Toyota Proace City Verso, PSA-Toyota now holds a commanding 48.2% share of the class, up from 39.1% in the same period last year. Renault has just revealed the next generation of its compact van and it will become a bit confusing here. There will be a Kangoo that will again have a Mercedes-Benz clone named Citan, both will be available in passenger van versions and MPV versions, the latter of which Mercedes will name the T-Class, like the Vito Tourer and V-Class. But Renault will also launch a more budget-friendly version of the Kangoo, named Kangoo Express, which is based on the Dacia Dokker. The Express make not come to Europe in passenger van version, though. In the meantime, Kangoo/Citan sales are down 42% while Dokker sales are down 35%. Ford is struggling in this segment this year, with the Tourneo Connect down 60% and the Tourneo Courier down 82%. Nissan are becoming more and more niche players in this class, although it would be expected that Fiat also gets its own version of the Partner/Berlingo when the PSA-FCA merger is concluded.
2020 Q1-Q3 small passenger van sales Europe
| Small passenger van segment | 2020 Q1-Q3 | 2019 Q1-Q3 | Change | 2020 share | 2020-Q3 | |
| 1 | Volkswagen Caddy Life | 34.404 | 41.370 | -17% | 24,2% | 12.655 |
| 2 | Peugeot Rifter | 29.135 | 38.047 | -23% | 20,5% | 11.328 |
| 3 | Citroën Berlingo Multispace | 25.057 | 34.175 | -27% | 17,6% | 9.470 |
| 4 | Dacia Dokker | 21.853 | 33.394 | -35% | 15,4% | 7.470 |
| 5 | Opel/Vauxhall Combo Tour | 9.989 | 10.065 | -1% | 7,0% | 3.333 |
| 6 | Renault Kangoo | 5.363 | 10.174 | -47% | 3,8% | 1.640 |
| 7 | Toyota Proace City Verso | 4.465 | 0 | New | 3,1% | 2.882 |
| 8 | Ford Tourneo Connect | 4.252 | 10.600 | -60% | 3,0% | 0 |
| 9 | Ford Tourneo Courier | 2.785 | 15.200 | -82% | 2,0% | 0 |
| 10 | Mercedes-Benz Citan Combi | 2.592 | 3.455 | -25% | 1,8% | 1.441 |
| 11 | Nissan NV200 Evalia | 1.320 | 2.569 | -49% | 0,9% | 435 |
| 12 | Fiat Doblo | 823 | 3.656 | -77% | 0,6% | 210 |
| 13 | Fiat Qubo | 188 | 6.850 | -97% | 0,1% | 41 |
| 14 | Peugeot Partner Tepee / Ranch | 103 | 966 | -89% | 0,1% | 13 |
| Segment total | 142.329 | 210.521 | -32% |
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.