Opel and sister company Vauxhall have just facelifted the Insignia, but talks about its successor are already underway.
Expected after 2022, the mid-size car could be turned into a crossover, AutoExpress reports, in an attempt to revitalize it by entering the booming segment.
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“The industry is asking what happens after the SUV”, Vauxhall’s Managing Director, Stephen Norman, told the British publication. “And we think the new Insignia will be it. It’s the biggest metamorphosis of what we’ve seen so far from Vauxhall.”
The next-gen Insignia won’t be your run-of-the-mill crossover, but a mix between an SUV and an MPV, similar to the Renault Espace. The vehicle will provide improved leg and headroom at the back, and the shift to PSA’s modular EMP2 architecture should allow it to grow in size.
The platform already underpins different models from Peugeot and Citroen, as well as the Grandland X crossover, and supports electrification. Thus, it’s likely that the successor of the mid-size family car will also get plug-in hybrid powertrains.
Sales of the Insignia have dropped in Europe from 137,714 in 2009 to 67,424 last year, according to CarSalesBase. In the first 10 months of 2019, it didn’t do so well either, with only 39,904 reported sales. The rivaling Ford Mondeo did even worse, with 117,565 in 2009, 49,596 last year and 33,943 from January to October this year, while the Euro-spec Volkswagen Passat was chosen by 177,450 customers in 2009, 154,074 last year and 100,389 in the first 10 months of 2019.
