In Australia, if we may generalise for a moment, it seems like people movers (aka MPVs or minivans) have long been reserved for three types of buyers: those with particularly large families; hotels that need shuttles; and rental fleets.
Try to convince a typical Aussie to buy one of these boxy vehicles rather than a trendier SUV and you’ll often be met with a look of disgust, no matter 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, both places where their popularity has faded as SUV demand has continued to grow.
In Australia, long-running nameplates 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 a huge segment, and is outsold by even mid-size passenger cars.
CarExpert can save you thousands on a new car. Click here to get a great deal.
But head over to China and Japan, and you’ll see people movers everywhere. And they’re not just kid-haulers designed to get grubby.
Myriad brands offer increasingly lavish four-seat variants with interior dividers, huge digital screens, fridges, and seats that can 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, at least officially – Toyota even axed its Granvia people mover locally earlier this year.
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 different story entirely.
LDV launched the electric MIFA 9 in 2023, with a base price north of $100,000. Then, early this year, Zeekr started 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 electric version of its more affordable MIFA people mover, in 2023, followed by 20 in 2024, and just three this year.
Zeekr has delivered a more impressive 119 examples of the 009 this year, but that’s still fewer than what Kia will deliver of its Carnival in a given week.
Of course, the 009 breathes rarified air with its base price north of $100k – even following the announcement of a more affordable base grade last month – and an interior that makes the Carnival’s admittedly nice cabin look rather pedestrian.
Despite their low sales volumes, however, these two Chinese people movers appear to have emboldened other Chinese brands to bring their own pricey people movers here.
As the most luxuriously appointed members of their respective brand lineups, these people movers can arguably offer a ‘halo effect’. But some of these brands are genuinely claiming there is strong demand for these products and that they can be sales drivers.
“Yes, in Australia there are just a few brands which provide an MPV. This is quite a similar situation in China back to maybe 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 most popular one. But after the M8 goes to the market, it actually expands the market, the market becomes bigger than before.
“I think after the M8 comes to the Australian market, there will be some change in the customers because at this moment for the Carnival… Most of the customers have an Asian background, but it has already changed a little bit. The Aussies start to buy [people movers].”
His brand’s M8 has only just gone on sale here, becoming the only plug-in hybrid people mover in 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 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 in the vehicle to make the case with Xpeng HQ in China that the X9 could be sold here successfully.
“We’ve taken a significant number 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 during the first quarter of 2026, before customer deliveries begin from the second quarter.
The X9 is offered 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 less enthusiastic about its potential new people mover.
The D9 received road vehicle type approval in Australia this month, but the 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 wanted to go for the big segment,” explained Denza Australia chief operating officer Mark Harland to CarExpertearlier this month. His brand is instead launching with a pair of large off-road SUVs.
“We’re still looking at if and when we bring that in, because it’s not a huge segment, especially at the luxury end.
“We want to establish the network, establish our presence with the B5 and B8 before we look at the D9 and the reason we did the [vehicle type approval] on the D9 is because it’s a car that’s available to us in as a right-hand drive car, and it’s doing well in Malaysia and Indonesia and other right-hand drive markets.”
In short, Denza Australia may import it because it’s available, and it doesn’t appear to be 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 offered in China. Also available in China, albeit only with the PHEV powertrain, is a palatial Pioneer Edition with no third row and a giant divider between the first and second rows fitted with an integrated 32-inch screen.
Thus far, 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 – will be sold under the GWM banner.
CarExpert understands the Wey G9 – a large, plug-in hybrid, all-wheel drive people mover – will make its way to Australian showrooms.
Of the other Chinese brands in Australia, not all have a large 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 slightly smaller people mover as the MG Maxus 7 in Thailand. Likewise, BYD offers the Xia, which is closely related to the Denza D9; it’s sold as the BYD M9 in some markets.
Chery, Deepal, Omoda Jaecoo and Leapmotor don’t currently have people movers, but there are various other Chinese brands not yet in Australia that do. It’s possible, then, that as more and more Chinese brands announce Australian plans, some will throw their hat into the people mover ring.
Even without them, there’ll be a lot of players fighting for just under 15,000 annual sales.
