Dodge will end Grand Caravan production in 2020
When the news broke last month that Chrysler was bringing out an entry-level version of the Pacifica minivan, to be branded as the Voyager, we reported that the Dodge Grand Caravan would continue in production as a low-cost alternative to the Pacifica. Now, an industry analyst at AutoForecast Solutions says that FCA will stop making the Grand Caravan at its Windsor, Ontario, Canada assembly plant in May 2020, according to Automotive News Canada.
Sam Fiorani, vice president in charge of global vehicle forecasting for AutoForecast Solutions said, “For the 2020 model year, they’ll likely run [the Grand Caravan] to fleet and then get the consumers to buy the new Voyager.” Fiorani said that production of the Grand Caravan was originally going to continue through the end of 2020, but FCA has changed that to next May, apparently to speed up the process of consumers switching to the Voyager.
That process is going to be particularly challenging north of the border as the Grand Caravan still makes up the vast majority of minivans that Chrysler sells in budget-conscious Canada. Although the Grand Caravan was most recently updated in 2008, the aging model sold 15,943 units in the first half of 2019 in Canada, compared to just 2216 Pacificas.
The 2020 Voyager is scheduled to begin production in August at the Windsor facility with deliveries of the $27,480 minivan at U.S. dealerships to begin in the fall. It will be available in three trim lines, L and LX for retail customers, and LX-i for fleets.
So far there has been no news of when the Voyager might go on sale in Canada, though a FCA Canada spokesperson had earlier told Automotive News that the Grand Caravan would remain on sale in that country into 2020, and that the Voyager would “eventually” go on sale there.
