During the third quarter, Stellantis’ U.S. new car sales maintained their years-long decline, in spite of CEO Carlos Tavares’s attempts to rectify what he has referred to as “arrogant” errors.
The transatlantic automaker said on Wednesday that its July through September sales in the United States were 305,294, which is a 19.8% fall from the third quarter of 2023 and an 11.5% decrease from the previous three months of this year.
Stellantis was predicted to have the lowest third-quarter sales performance among the big automakers. The automaker was expected to see a nearly 21% fall in sales, according to auto industry forecaster Cox Automotive.
Cox and fellow analyst Edmunds predict that overall industry sales for the third quarter would be down around 2% from the same period last year.
Nevertheless, Stellantis said that its efforts to increase sales and make up for previous errors are beginning to bear fruit. The carmaker reported a decrease in its U.S. vehicle inventory of 11.6% and a rise in market share from 7.2% to 8% in the third quarter.
Matt Thompson, president of Stellantis’ U.S. retail sales, stated in a release that “we continue to take the necessary actions to drive sales and prepare our dealer network and consumers for the arrival of 2025 models.”
Sales decreased across all of Stellantis’ brands in the third quarter, with the exception of its specialized Fiat subsidiary. For Chrysler and Dodge, these decreases were greater than 40%. Its Jeep brand had an approximately 6% decline year over year, while its Ram truck brand saw a nearly 19% decline.
Stellantis’ third-quarter sales figures are the latest issue facing the automaker this week; in addition to lowering its prediction for 2024 profit margin, the company has had to deal with a recall of its plug-in hybrid electric Jeep vehicles because of fire hazards.
This year, the company’s shares on the New York Stock Exchange have dropped 41%. Tuesday’s closing price of $13.71 marked a new 52-week low for the company, which fell 2.4% on the day.
Tavares said at a June investor event that the business will address “arrogant” errors he and the firm had made in the automaker’s U.S. operations, which had resulted in declining sales, excessive inventory, and investor concerns.
He said that the problems resulted from the convergence of three factors: a lack of “sophistication in the way to go to market,” production challenges, particularly with two unidentified factories, and a failure to sell down car inventories quickly enough.
Since a recent record of 2.2 million in 2018, Stellantis, previously Fiat Chrysler, has seen a yearly fall in U.S. sales. The firm sold over 1.5 million cars last year, a decrease of about 1% from 2022, when it revealed a notable 13% decrease from the year before.
According to government data, Stellantis’ success is compared with the new light-duty vehicle sales market in the United States as a whole, which grew by 13% in the previous year.
Since its formation in January 2021 as a result of the combination of Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA Groupe, Tavares has been driven by profit and has been slashing costs.
The United Auto Workers union and Stellantis’ U.S. franchised dealers have harshly criticized him for putting profits and car prices ahead of market share.
