Stellantis has 'midcycle action plan' for Chrysler Pacifica

Chrysler’s minivan isn’t dead yet.

The automaker that invented the vehicle — and the segment — 40 years ago has no short-term plans to kill the people mover. 

Instead, Chrysler Brand CEO Christine Feuell told journalists on Dec. 12 that parent company Stellantis has a “midcycle action plan for the Pacifica,” which is built in Windsor, Ontario.

The automaker's first minivan — a Plymouth Voyager built by Chrysler Corp. — rolled off the line Nov. 2, 1983, as a 1984 model. It was the first of more than 13 million Stellantis minivans that have been sold in the U.S.

“We’ll be doing a refresh on the Pacifica and it will be more than just a moderate refresh. It will be pretty significant,” Feuell said. “I’m not at liberty to say what year that will come out. It will be some point after we launch the first new [Chrysler] BEV product.”

Chrysler is planning to launch an all-electric crossover in 2025, similar to the Airflow concept unveiled in 2022. The brand has not confirmed a name or any other details about the upcoming crossover.

In the meantime, Feuell said Chrysler will be a “one-product brand for about a year.” That’s because output of the Chrysler 300 ends at Stellantis' Brampton Assembly plant in Ontario later this month.

“So we're making the most with Pacifica,” she said.

The Pacifica minivan was last freshened for the 2021 model year. An electric version on the automaker's STLA Large platform could arrive around 2028, Automotive News has reported.

The Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid has been the most awarded minivan for the past seven years. Feuell said the automaker’s research shows the plug-in hybrid Pacifica and the Tesla Model Y “are often cross-shopped against each other” by consumers looking for a hybrid or electric vehicle.

Feuell also said the minivan market remains on solid ground, even as consumers continue to flock to crossovers and SUVs. “Our forecasts indicate that that segment is going to be more than stable over the next 10 years,” she said.

“The minivan segment in North America actually increased 40 percent in 2023 compared to 2022," she said. "Part of that had to do with the fact that in 2022, the segment was in very short supply. So 2023 was a bit of a catch-up year. But, that said, we're still seeing the segment increasing probably 15 to 20 percent next year and then settling into a pretty consistent run rate through 2030.” 

Feuell also confirmed that the Chrysler Voyager will live on as a fleet vehicle in the U.S.

Sales of the Pacifica peaked in the U.S. in 2018 at 118,322. Sales slid during the pandemic, bottoming out at 98,323 vehicles in 2021 but shooting back up to 112,198 through the first nine months of 2023.

Still, the vehicle is long in the tooth and won’t live forever, says Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions.

“Unfortunately, that market is shrinking,” he said. “Volume itself is probably going to remain level for the next five, maybe eight, years. But it's got competition with three-row crossovers, which are gaining in popularity and with larger two-row crossovers going away, it's feeding that volume to three-row crossovers. So we're just watching minivan market share erode.” 

Fiorani said any refresh won’t be enough to draw more consumers. “There’s only so many buyers for minivans,” he said. 

Feuell said affordability has become an issue in the minivan segment, and that includes the Pacifica. 

“Obviously, many products and industries have been impacted by inflation, and escalating raw material and components costs," she said. Stellantis has had to increase pricing over the last two years to offset those costs, she added. 

“We’ve been working from both a pricing perspective as well as from incentives and promotional perspectives to hit that sweet spot of the monthly payment,” Feuell said. “But at the same time, we know those payments are going up compared to where they were five years ago.”