The Vauxhall Insignia is no longer on sale in the UK, and the brand has no immediate plans to launch a replacement.
“The Insignia stopping for Vauxhall,” UK managing director Paul Willcox told Autocar. “We will fulfil orders, but there is no plan in the short-term to replace it straight away.
“There will still be an Opel Insignia [which stays on sale in Europe and other markets, and remains in production] but there is a gap for us, with no plans to fill for now.”
The Insignia has been already taken off Vauxhall’s website as a model within its current range, and its departure follows that of the Ford Mondeo. The demise of the pair, once among the best-sellers in the UK, shows the near total collapse of the D-segment in the UK car market, such models having been usurped by SUVs and crossovers almost to extinction.
Autocar understands that Opel will replace the Insignia in around 2024/25, as a more rakish and premium electrified crossover model that will be higher-riding than today’s model but not a full-blown SUV crossover.
It is likely that this model would come to the UK as a Vauxhall, something backed up by Willcox’s comment that its departure was a short-term one with a gap in the range for now. Whether this new model would retain the Insignia name or adopt an entirely new name to reflect its new positioning remains to be seen.
Vauxhall will offer an electrified version of every model in its range by 2024, and will be fully electric by 2028.
A Vauxhall statement on the Insignia’s departure from UK price lists read: “In line with UK market trends, and a focus on our move to electrification, Vauxhall has decided to close customer ordering for the Vauxhall Insignia model with immediate effect.
“Production of the Vauxhall Insignia will continue until the Autumn after all existing orders have been fulfilled.
“Ordering and production of its sister model, the Opel Insignia, continues unaffected in markets outside the UK.
“New electrified models will enter the Vauxhall line-up in due course as we move to our commitment to be a solely electric brand from 2028.”