Chrysler CEO touts minivan ‘resurgence’ but stays quiet on plans

Chrysler and Dodge CEO Matt McAlear wants the world to know that the minivan is not dead. Far from it, he said, at the New York International Auto Show, where he showed off the latest version of the Pacifica Pinnacle, the highest-end trim of the brand’s sole product line.

The Chrysler brand — once one of the biggest names in the auto industry — only sells a single family of minivans, which many take as a sign of the brand’s impending demise.

Chrysler, which has been promising new products for years, said it will share more plans at parent company Stellantis‘ investor day on May 21 in Auburn Hills, Michigan. McAlear didn’t elaborate further but said the brand had “a lot of things in the works” and touted its only vehicle.

“We absolutely see the minivan market growing, and we believe there’s an opportunity for Chrysler to continue its growth year over year,” McAlear said. Chrysler is the best-selling brand in the segment, he added.

Chrysler is often credited with inventing the minivan, or at least mainstreaming it in the United States in the early 1980s. Rivals followed, but many have since abandoned it.

Since the 1990s, minivans have steadily lost ground to SUVs, which are considered sportier and more adventurous. Minivan sales were a mere 1.7% of the market in 2017, according to Edmunds. In 2025, they were up to 2.4%.

Sales numbers from Chrysler and its few competitors in this segment indicate growing interest in the adaptive and often affordable “multipurpose vehicle,” as the minivan is sometimes called. The average transaction price for a large SUV is $77,215, according to Edmunds. The average minivan price, meanwhile, is  $48,269 — just above the overall industry average cost for a new vehicle of $48,402.

There is enough demand that Chrysler saw fit to unveil a new highest-end version of its minivan at the Auto Show, called the Pinnacle. The vehicle is full of features common in higher-end family vehicles, like screens on the backs of seats so passengers in a rear row can watch movies on a road trip. But there are also some perks that are tough to find outside the segment: both second and third row seats on some versions can be completely stowed in the floor, for example. 

Companies like Chrysler are also trying to look beyond the “family hauler” identity the minivan has had for much of its history. Its Grizzly Peak concept has knobby tires and a roof rack, for a more rugged option and McAlear said the company was thinking about how to do more of that. 

“We’re looking at it,” he said. “We’re trying to figure out if there’s a way to do it because people love it. And it is unlike anything you’ve ever seen from a minivan brand before.”

McAlear also touted the van’s storage capacity compared with similar vehicles.

“I’ve got a friend that’s a racecar driver,” he said. “One of his favorite things about this is he puts a shifter kart in the backseat with the third row down, with his kids so he can keep it safe and doesn’t have to have a trailer. Another buddy of mine loves kiteboarding, and he doesn’t want to put it on the top because it’s hard to get it up and down. It’s hard to keep it secure and safe. He keeps it inside.”

Pacifica sales were only up slightly in 2025. The affordable Voyager model, which the brand has since renamed the Pacifica LX, sells in lower quantities but saw a bigger jump. Pacifica sales were down for the first quarter of 2026, but Chrysler said they were up nearly 84% in March year over year. 

There are only a handful of vehicles in this segment in the U.S., or five basic model lines including the electric Volkswagen ID Buzz, which VW prefers not to call a minivan. 

Toyota Sienna sales jumped 35% in 2025, and were up again in the first quarter of 2026. It’s nowhere near Toyota’s best-selling vehicle, and many models — some of which were new ones or refreshes — saw greater increase. Toyota’s Japanese rival Honda saw sales of its Odyssey jump 10% last year. But they dipped in the first quarter of 2026. 

One especially successful model has been the Kia Carnival. Volumes rose in 2025 and in the first quarter of 2026. It still doesn’t match Kia’s comparable SUVs, as minivan sales are just a few thousand shy of the three-row Sorento, but far below the popular, more rugged Telluride. 

“Carnival is just a great family, practical vehicle,” said Eric Watson, vice president of sales operations for Kia America. “I think in the stage of life when people have kids and want those power sliding doors and the configuration of what that vehicle provides, it’s perfect in that life stage.”

Kia was one of the later entrants into the segment, and though it has the sliding rear door that defines the minivan segment, the body panel on it is punched into give the illusion the vehicle is an SUV. 

“I think that attracts a lot of people and lowers that stigma of being a minivan family,” Watson said.

But some are attracted to the segment itself. While the Chrysler Pinnacle starts above $56,000, the lowest priced LX, starts just above $41,000.

“We’re actually seeing a resurgence,” McAlear said. “At the end of the day, these things make life easier and you don’t always have to impress everybody.”