Stellantis U.S. sales dropped by 1% in both the fourth quarter and 2023 as a whole, dropping the company below Hyundai-Kia to an embarrassing fifth place in U.S. sales. With Ford yet to report in, Stellantis is the only automaker to report dropping sales for 2023.
While some on social media blame the loss of V8 engines, Stellantis had a full range of V8s available for buyers throughout the year; production of cars with V8 engines only stopped in December, and they will continue to power Ram pickups, Dodge Durangos, and Jeep Grand Cherokees through the 2024 model-year. Speculation as to the reasons for the sales drop are largely focused on FCA US’ “high profit/low sales” strategy, propounded by Sergio Marchionne, coupled with slowness to respond to heavy competition in SUVs (particularly the Ford Bronco and Bronco Sport).
The news was not all bad; Chrysler sales rose by 19%, to 133,729, mainly Pacifica minivans (Chrysler 300 only had 13,169 sales for the year). Dodge grew sales by 4.5%, rising to nearly 200,000 for the full year—though nearly all of the gain could be explained by the launch of the Hornet. (Charger and Challenger sales fell and Durango sales rose considerably).
The bad news was largely at the volume sellers, Jeep and Ram. Jeep, still the company’s biggest USA seller, dropped by 6% to 642,924 (still enough to beat Subaru). Ram dropped by 1% to 539,476. Excluding Maserati, which grew but is not included in FCA US reports, FCA US sold 1,527,090 vehicles, down 1% from 2023’s 1,547,076.
Alfa Romeo and Fiat were both asterisks, in essence. Fiat fell by its customary 34%, with just 605 sales. Alfa Romeo managed 10,898 sales, falling by 15% from the prior year despite 2,096 Tonale sales (Tonale was new for 2023). One interesting point of contrast is that the Hornet, which came out later in the year than the Tonale, managed to reach 9,314 sales, nearly as many as Alfa Romeo in total; half of its sales were in the fourth quarter as supply grew.
