Windsor Made Routan Discontinued by Volkswagen

By Samuel McEachern

Volkswagen Group has announced it will cease production later this year of its Routan minivan, which shares the Chrysler Town and Country and Dodge Grand Caravan platform.

When Volkswagen Group introduced the Routan minivan in 2008 at the New York Auto Show they hoped to gain a significant share of the minivan market. However between 2008 and 2013 the Routan sold a lowly 57,650 units.

In July 2012, production of all Routan minivans at Windsor’s Chrysler Assembly plant came to a halt due to many unsold vans still sitting in Volkswagen dealer lots. Volkswagen claimed the halt in production was only temporary while they waited for the remaining Routans taking up space at VW dealerships to be sold.

Anthony Faria, professor at the University of Windsor and automotive industry analyst, said the Routan was axed simply because it was not profitable enough.

“Production of the Volkswagen Routan was stopped because the vehicle just didn’t sell,” Faria said. “There was no point in continuing production of the product as its sales level was not profitable for VW.”

Total U.S. minivan sales last year were 597,118 units, compared to the Routans sales of 10,483 units. Volkswagen was anticipating moving about 29,000 units each year of production. In 2012, nearly 346,000 vehicles were assembled at the Windsor minivan plant and 8,662 were Routans.

Jobs at the Windsor Assembly Plant will not be lost due to the Dodge Grand Caravan, Chrysler Town and Country, Lancia Grand Voyager and Dodge C/V still remaining in production.

However, Chrysler is looking to drop its product line down to one minivan for 2015, meaning assembly at the Windsor plant in 2014 may be affected.

“They will drop either the Chrysler Town & Country or the Dodge Grand Caravan,” Faria said. “Whichever minivan is dropped, the nameplate will be shifted to a crossover that will take the minivan’s place.”

If one of the minivans is replaced with a new crossover, it is entirely possible the new vehicle will not be assembled in Windsor.  If Windsor Assembly happens to get the new crossover, there will be no job losses. If they do not the Windsor plant could drop to two shifts and as many as 900 jobs could be lost.

“The Routan is a non-issue for the Windsor plant but when Chrysler drops down to one minivan for the 2015 model year, where the new crossover is built is a very big issue for Windsor,” said Faria.