In Australia, if we may generalise for a moment, it looks as if people movers (aka MPVs or minivans) have long been reserved for 3 sorts of buyers: those with particularly large families; hotels that need shuttles; and rental fleets.
Attempt to persuade a typical Aussie to purchase considered one of these boxy vehicles quite than a trendier SUV and also you’ll often be met with a glance of disgust, regardless of how much they enjoyed the Kia Carnival they rented on their last interstate holiday…
People movers never reached the dizzying sales heights here that they did in markets like Europe and the US, each places where their popularity has faded as SUV demand has continued to grow.
In Australia, long-running nameplates just like the Toyota Tarago and Honda Odyssey have disappeared, while the Kia Carnival has consolidated its share of the people mover market segment, which now sits at just over 73 per cent. Mind you, it’s not an enormous segment, and is outsold by even mid-size passenger cars.
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But head over to China and Japan, and also you’ll see people movers in all places. And so they’re not only kid-haulers designed to get grubby.
Myriad brands offer increasingly lavish four-seat variants with interior dividers, huge digital screens, fridges, and seats that may heat, cool and massage you. A bit different from dad’s old Ford Spectron, then.
While there are luxe people movers offered by Nissan and Toyota in Japan, they haven’t come here, a minimum of officially – Toyota even axed its Granvia people mover locally earlier this yr.
Flying the Japanese flag solo in Australia’s people mover segment is the luxurious Lexus LM, launched here in 2024.
As for the Chinese brands, it’s a special story entirely.
LDV launched the electrical MIFA 9 in 2023, with a base price north of $100,000. Then, early this yr, Zeekr began delivering its electric 009, priced from $135,900 before on-roads.
Neither have set the sales charts on fire.
LDV delivered just 12 examples of the MIFA 9, technically an electrical version of its cheaper MIFA people mover, in 2023, followed by 20 in 2024, and just three this yr.
Zeekr has delivered a more impressive 119 examples of the 009 this yr, but that’s still fewer than what Kia will deliver of its Carnival in a given week.
After all, the 009 breathes rarified air with its base price north of $100k – even following the announcement of a cheaper base grade last month – and an interior that makes the Carnival’s admittedly nice cabin look quite pedestrian.
Despite their low sales volumes, nevertheless, these two Chinese people movers appear to have emboldened other Chinese brands to bring their very own pricey people movers here.
As essentially the most luxuriously appointed members of their respective brand lineups, these people movers can arguably offer a ‘halo effect’. But a few of these brands are genuinely claiming there is powerful demand for these products and that they might be sales drivers.
“Yes, in Australia there are only just a few brands which offer an MPV. This is sort of an identical situation in China back to possibly 10 years,” Cheney Liang, deputy general manager of GAC Australia, told CarExpert in November.
“Before the M8 [launched in China], it was just the [Honda] Odyssey as the preferred one. But after the M8 goes to the market, it actually expands the market, the market becomes greater than before.
“I feel after the M8 involves the Australian market, there might be some change in the shoppers because at this moment for the Carnival… Most of the shoppers have an Asian background, but it surely has already modified a little bit bit. The Aussies start to purchase [people movers].”
His brand’s M8 has only just gone on sale here, becoming the one plug-in hybrid people mover within the Australian market. It’s priced from $76,590 before on-road costs, and in Luxury trim has the requisite executive transport features like heated, ventilated and massaging second-row captain’s chairs with power leg rests.
Xpeng has arguably essentially the most interesting-looking people mover of the lot with the X9, due here during 2026.
Its local distributor TrueEV claims it recorded enough interest within the vehicle to make the case with Xpeng HQ in China that the X9 may very well be sold here successfully.
“We’ve taken a big variety of pre-orders and deposits for the X9. That demand is all but proven,” TrueEV CEO Jason Clarke told CarExpertthis month.
Pricing and specifications are expected to be announced in the course of the first quarter of 2026, before customer deliveries begin from the second quarter.
The X9 is obtainable in China with either electric (EV) or extended-range electric (EREV) powertrains, and with its 800V electrical architecture and air suspension it’s shaping up as more of a rival to the Zeekr 009.
Denza appears a little bit less keen about its potential recent people mover.
The D9 received road vehicle type approval in Australia this month, but the brand new (to Australia) brand has yet to officially confirm it for our market.
“We could have launched with the D9, which is the people mover that they’re using in Indonesia, Malaysia and other markets. But we desired to go for the large segment,” explained Denza Australia chief operating officer Mark Harland to CarExpertearlier this month. His brand is as an alternative launching with a pair of huge off-road SUVs.
“We’re still taking a look at if and after we bring that in, since it’s not an enormous segment, especially at the posh end.
“We would like to determine the network, establish our presence with the B5 and B8 before we have a look at the D9 and the explanation we did the [vehicle type approval] on the D9 is since it’s a automobile that’s available to us in as a right-hand drive automobile, and it’s doing well in Malaysia and Indonesia and other right-hand drive markets.”
Briefly, Denza Australia may import it since it’s available, and it doesn’t seem like a mode the local arm would have otherwise been lobbying for.
It’s been approved for Australia in electric guise, though plug-in hybrid power is obtainable in China. Also available in China, albeit only with the PHEV powertrain, is a palatial Pioneer Edition with no third row and a large divider between the primary and second rows fitted with an integrated 32-inch screen.
Up to now, only Lexus offers such an interior configuration in Australia.
But wait, there’s more!
GWM has confirmed it’ll launch the fifth of its Chinese-market brands here, the premium Wey marque, vehicles from which – like GWM, Haval, Tank and Ora – might be sold under the GWM banner.
CarExpert understands the Wey G9 – a big, plug-in hybrid, all-wheel drive people mover – will make its strategy to Australian showrooms.
Of the opposite Chinese brands in Australia, not all have a big people mover in other markets.
Geely has the 5.3m-long Galaxy L380 EV with styling inspired by the Airbus A380 and optional air suspension; there’s also an EREV version, the Geely Galaxy V900.
MG sells a rebadged LDV MIFA 9 in some markets, while also fielding a rather smaller people mover because the MG Maxus 7 in Thailand. Likewise, BYD offers the Xia, which is closely related to the Denza D9; it’s sold because the BYD M9 in some markets.
Chery, Deepal, Omoda Jaecoo and Leapmotor don’t currently have people movers, but there are numerous other Chinese brands not yet in Australia that do. It’s possible, then, that as an increasing number of Chinese brands announce Australian plans, some will throw their hat into the people mover ring.
Even without them, there’ll be a whole lot of players fighting for just below 15,000 annual sales.
This Article First Appeared At www.carexpert.com.au
