Citroën Grand C4 SpaceTourer announced discontinuation, ending a nearly 30-year production cycle. Once a favorite vehicle of Europeans many years ago, the MPV is now a distant memory. SUVs have taken the lead, prompting automakers to adjust their lineups in line with new market trends. Citroën doesn't say that the SUV effectively killed the MPV, they showed its demise in a more subtle way. In the current era of changing modern styles and uses, people have gradually moved away from the MPV market.
Nearly 30 years after the sale of the MPV in Europe, the Grand C4 SpaceTourer will no longer be in production, with production scheduled to end in early July. Citroën has been selling utility vehicles since the launch of the Evasion in 1994, and then mid-term modifications to it in 1998. It was sold until 2002, with a total of more than 120,000 units sold.
The larger C8 was introduced in 2002 and discontinued in June 2014 after 150,000 units were sold. However, it was Xsara Picasso that exploded the MPV segment, selling no less than 180,000 units in its first year of sales in 1999. The French automaker kept the model in its portfolio until 2012, with a total of 1.76 million units sold.
As for the Grand C4 SpaceTourer in the picture, it dates back to the launch of the original C4 Picasso in 2006. The second-generation model, released in 2013, was equipped with split headlights before it became all the rage. In early 2018, it was renamed C4 SpaceTourer, which also affected a larger version known as Grand C4 SpaceTourer. The shorter five-seater model was withdrawn from the market in 2020, and now the seven-seater MPV is also coming to an end.
Citroën's best-selling year in terms of MPV demand was 2007, when they sold 115,000 Xsara Picassos and 215,000 C4 Picassos. This is not the end of the family MPV, as the Berlingo and SpaceTourer, which are based on commercial vans, are still reproduced and equipped with an electric powertrain.