Fiat Chrysler Automobiles must grapple with whether to continue its two-minivan strategy as sales decline in North America and as the Dodge Grand Caravan approaches the end of production.
What the automaker decides will have a major impact not only on the segment it invented 36 years ago, but also on the future of FCA's Windsor, Ontario, minivan assembly plant, which employs more than 6,000 hourly workers on three shifts.
"The likelihood of the minivan share of the total market increasing is pretty slim longer term," said Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants Inc. "The consumer has made up their mind pretty well that crossover vehicles are more practical than minivans and often quite a lot cheaper.