Dodge Grand Caravan reportedly will cease production in 2020

The Dodge Grand Caravan looks like it may finally be reaching its demise next year. A report from Automotive News Canada says the old Dodge minivan will cease production in May 2020. The report cites AutoForecast Solutions as the source of its news. We’ve asked FCA for comment, and will update this post upon hearing back.

For the time being, it looks like the Grand Caravan’s long run will eventually grind to a halt in Windsor, Ontario, the van’s only production site. With the introduction of the Chrysler Voyager as the budget minivan option from Chrysler, FCA may think it no longer has any use for the outdated Dodge. The Grand Caravan has a starting price of $28,535, whereas the new Voyager is priced from $28,480. That’s an almost identical starting point, but we still don’t know what kind of incentives FCA will offer for the Voyager. There are typically big cuts for the Grand Caravan, which have pushed recent average transaction prices down to $24,972. We imagine it’ll be much more difficult for FCA to offer discounts of that magnitude to Voyager shoppers.

Still, AutoForecast Solutions told Automotive News it believes FCA will transition folks away from the Grand Caravan. “For the 2020 model year, they’ll likely run to fleet and then get the consumers to buy the new Voyager,” says Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions.

Eliminating the Grand Caravan would be a strong bet on Chrysler’s strategy of splitting the Pacifica into two different model lines. Nearly every month, FCA sells more Grand Caravans than Pacificas. The Pacifica is the far superior minivan to own, but you can’t argue with a cheap price. Once the Grand Caravan is gone, budget minivan buyers will have no choice but to buy a Voyager if they want the cheapest new option out there. Entries from the few other manufacturers that produce minivans are all going to be more expensive than the Voyager.

The 2020 Pacifica and Voyager team are slated to reach dealers later this year, but it won’t be until next year that we’re able to fully take stock of how this plays out for FCA.