All Of Stellantis’ American Brands Are Doing Badly This Year, But The Italians Are On The Upswing

Now that we’re halfway through the year, automakers are slowly trickling out Q2 2024 sales results, which always results in goodies and interesting tidbits to be found. EV sales are up at multiple brands like BMW, Hyundai and GM, for instance. But it’s not all good news — just look at Stellantis. Every one of the conglomerate’s American brands saw declining sales both in Q2 and for the first half of the year overall, with Stellantis’ two Italian brands being the only ones that registered an increase in sales.

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Fiat’s sales were up 119 percent in Q2 with 316 cars sold, and for the year-to-date, sales are up 67 percent with 470 cars sold so far in 2024. Obviously, that’s not a lot, but up until a few months ago the only new car that Fiat offered in the U.S. were the super old 500X, and in the whole of 2023 Fiat only sold 605 cars. The newly reintroduced Fiat 500e posted a massive sales increase of 16,200 percent, but only 163 of the new 500 were sold so far. Year-to-date sales are up 20,300 percent, but that’s just 204 units of the new 500e sold so far this year. If you’re wondering what gives with the big percentage increases but small sales numbers, remember the 500 was discontinued in 2019, and apparently there were leftovers as just a single 500 was reported as being sold in 2023. Even the 500X, a model that’s on it’s way out soon, saw a seven-percent gain with 143 sold in Q2.

Image: Fiat

Alfa Romeo sales were up eight percent in Q2 with 2,492 cars sold, and year-to-date sales were up slightly at two percent with 4,777 sold. Looking at each model individually, however, and you’ll see every single model declined except for the Tonale crossover, of which 1,615 have been sold this year so far. Giulia sales were down 24 percent in Q2 and 29 percent year to date, and the Stelvio is down 29 percent in Q2 and 32 percent year to date.

Nearly every Jeep model saw sales declines both in Q2 and year-to-date so far, and the entire brand was down 19 percent in Q2 and nine percent for the year with 3,014,186 vehicles sold. Wrangler sales declined 17 percent in Q2 and nine percent for the year, while the Gladiator was down 24 percent in Q2 and 14 percent for the year. Models like the Cherokee and Renegade saw huge declines, but those are more understandable given they are going out of production. The only Jeep models that saw positive sales were the Wagoneer lineup. Sales of the standard Wagoneer were up 107 percent in Q2 and 119 percent for the year, and the Grand Wagoneer is up 24 percent in Q2 and up 43 percent for the year.

Image: Jeep

Ram pickup sales were down, but that mostly has to do with the change over to the facelifted 2025 1500, which ditches the Hemi V8 engine. Sales of the truck dropped 23 percent in Q2, going from six figures to just over 90,000 in the quarter, and year-to-date sales are down 20 percent. Both Ram van models also saw declines, and the brand as a whole was down 26 percent both in Q2 and the year overall.

At Chrysler, probably the saddest brand under Stellantis’ belt, sales were down 19 percent in Q2 and eight percent for the year so far. As the last cars leave dealer lots, sales of the Chrysler 300 sedan were down 53 percent in Q2, and just 3,961 have been sold this year overall, a decline of 49 percent. The Pacifica, the only currently in-production model the brand sells until its EVs arrive, saw sales drop 16 percent in Q2 but just four percent for the year so far.

Dodge brand sales were down 17 percent in Q2 and 16 percent for the year so far. That could have something to do with the Charger and Challenger ending production — like the Chrysler 300, leftovers are still being sold until the new Charger arrives later this year. Charger sales were down 34 percent in Q2 and 42 percent for the year, while Challenger sales were down 11 percent in Q2 and 13 percent for the year. The Durango, one of only two Dodge products currently in production, was down nine percent in Q2 and 11 percent for the year with 32,921 sold. The new Hornet was the only Dodge model to post positive numbers after being introduced late last year. Over 4,200 were sold in Q2 and 11,718 have been sold so far this year, versus 2,619 in total last year.

Hopefully a coming influx of new models at brands like Dodge, Jeep and Ram will remedy this sales slump. With how small and low-volume the Italian brands are, it’s pretty embarrassing to be outdone by them.