Stellantis brands dominated van sales in EU in 2020, figures show

PARIS -- Stellantis, the new automotive group formed from the merger of PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, last year sold nearly twice as many light-commercial vehicles in Europe as its nearest competitor.

According to figures from JATO Dynamics market researchers, PSA and FCA together sold 554,356 light-commercial vehicles in 2020, in the 27 EU countries, while No. 2 Ford sold 287,801. PSA sold 421,481 vehicles, while FCA sold 132,895.

The EU’s competition authorities investigated whether Stellantis, which officially started operations in January, would have a share of the commercial van market that would stifle competition in nine countries.

Under an agreement announced last December that allowed the merger to take place, Stellantis will help build up Toyota’s van share and give competitors more access to its repair and maintenance networks.

Toyota sold 54,492 light-commercial vehicles last year in Europe and was the only manufacturer to show an increase. It has production arrangements with Stellantis for two van models.

Toyota added the ProAce City, a version of car-derived vans from Citroen, Peugeot and Opel, to its lineup last year. Since 2013 the Toyota ProAce small van has been built in former PSA (now Stellantis) factories. 

Overall, there were 1,732,462 light commercial vehicles sold in the EU last year, an 18 percent drop, according to JATO.

Ford was followed by Renault, Volkswagen and Daimler (see chart, below).

By category, Stellantis brands dominated the car-derived van segment. These vans are built on passenger-car platforms. The Citroen Berlingo, with 65,869 sales, and Peugeot Partner, at 64,369 sales, easily outpaced the Renault Kangoo, at No. 3 with 52,459 sales.

There will be increased competition in the segment this year, with Renault launching a new-generation Kangoo and revamping the Dacia Dokker, which it will sell as the Renault Express at a lower price than the Kangoo. VW has launched a new version of the Caddy.

In the small van segment, the Ford Transit Custom, with 109,763 sales, outsold the VW Transporter (73,817) and the Renault Trafic (62,007). 

Among medium vans (the largest size in Europe under JATO’s categories), the Mercedes Sprinter led the way with 110,257 sales, ahead of the Renault Master (89,632) and Ford Transit (70,760).

Ford led the way in pickups, with 43,288 sales of the Ranger, ahead of the Toyota Hilux (25,260) and Mitsubishi L200 (15,437). That segment, too, is evolving, with Mitsubishi expected to pull the L200 from Europe, and the next version of the VW Amarok being built by Ford.