On April 1, Stellantis reported sales drops in the United States and Canada. Today, the company reported its global sales shortfall, and Automotive News put U.S. sales into more perspective (Stellpower has already reported on Stellantis’ drop from its #4 perch).
Stellantis currently has a single model in the top-selling light vehicles list, and none in the top-selling cars list. The Ram pickup, often #3 or #4 overall, fell to #6 with 78,848 sales—less than the Chevrolet Equinox, Honda CR-V, Toyota RAV4, and Chevy and Ford big pickup series. It came in just 300 sales over the GMC Sierra pickup, which is essentially gravy atop GM’s Silverado sales.
Stellantis does not sell a direct equivalent to the Chevrolet Equinox or Toyota RAV4 in the United States or Canada. The closest is likely the Jeep Compass, which has a much more limited range of powertrains and options than Chevrolet or Toyota provide. One reason is Fiat’s and then Stellantis’ decision to be a “premium price” provider in the United States and Canada, a strategy which normally requires either a long tradition (e.g. Mercedes and BMW) or extremely high quality coupled with some other compelling trait (e.g. high-powered engines, unique technologies or capabilities, or special styling).
The top selling cars were all imports, other than the #5 Tesla Model 3, whose sales were estimated and not certain. The top selling cars were the Camry, Civic, Corolla, and Sentra.
In the past, Dodge/Ram and Jeep usually had more than one of the top-selling “light trucks,” which includes SUVs. This quarter, only the Ram pickup made the list, at #6. (The only traditional passenger car to make the top-selling light vehicles list was the Camry at #9.)
The US light vehicle market rose by 4% in the quarter, but Stellantis fell by 12%. The only other major automakers to drop so far were Mercedes and Tesla, both falling by 9%; Ford fell by just 1.3%. GM, in contrast, gained by a stunning 17% in the quarter, a feat no other major could come close to; and it did so with moderate incentives.
Within Stellantis, Dodge fell the most as two of its three major sellers, the Charger and Challenger, were not available in large numbers; the Charger Daytona electric vehicle is still being produced and distributed slowly, and most of the cars at dealers are 2024 models. Jeep dropped by 10% and Maserati by 24%; Ram fell by just 2%, with the fall affecting the Ram 2500/3500, which still has the same V8 range, and Ram 1500 around equally. Chrysler stayed about the same, gaining 200 cars; Alfa Romeo dropped by 15%, or about 300 cars; and Fiat leaped from 154 to 522 sales with the 500e reaching general availability.
The best selling companies were General Motors at 690,338, displacing Toyota; Toyota, at 570,269; Ford, at 498,480; Hyundai-Kia, at 419,912; Honda at 351,577; Stellantis, at 294,525; and Nissan-Mitsubishi at 298,722. While many thought Tesla had outsold Stellantis, that was because Tesla’s global figure was compared to Stellantis in the United States alone; Tesla US sales were estimated at 130,000 for the quarter—less than Volkswagen Group, much less Stellantis.
Globally, Stellantis delivered (to dealers, distributors, or customers) 1.2 million vehicles in the first quarter of 2025, a 9% drop from the first quarter of 2024. They blamed lower North American production due to “extended holiday downtime in January” and “product transitions and lower light commercial vehicle volumes” in Europe. Deliveries dropped by 20% in North America, which was the company’s largest profit generator in 2024. Deliveries fell by just 8% in the largest region, Europe; by 15% in the Middle East and Africa; and by 20% in Asia-Pacific. Maserati sales imploded, dropping by 48%, from around 3,300 to around 1,700.
The company blamed import restrictions in Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt for its Middle East and Africa drop, and changeovers in Europe for the drop there.
The bright spot was a 19% gain in South America, the company’s #3 market.
David Zatz started what was to become the world’s biggest, most comprehensive Mopar site in 1994 as he pursued a career in organizational research and change. After a chemo-induced break, during which he wrote car books covering Vipers, minivans, and Jeeps, he returned with Patrick Rall to create StellPower.com for daily news, and to set up MoTales for mo’ tales.
David Zatz has around 30 years of experience in covering Chrysler/Mopar news and history, and most recently wrote Century of Chrysler, a 100-year retrospective on the Chrysler marque.
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