Stellantis was not the only automaker to lose U.S. sales in the first quarter. Ford saw a 1.3% drop, to 501,291, far over Stellantis’ 293,225 sales. According to the Detroit Free Press, this was mostly because they dropped the Edge and Transit Connect, and changed rental-fleet sales timing.
GM saw sales rise by 17%, beating expectations; the company sold 693,363 vehicles in the first quarter (2.4 times as many autos as Stellantis). GM’s electric car sales nearly doubled, to 31,887, making GM the second biggest seller of EVs in the country, after Tesla. The new Equinox and Blazer were responsible for much of the rise. Every GM marque reported sales growth, and GM remains the biggest American maker of big pickups. The new Cadillac Optiq had 1716 sales, and the Escalade IQ EV had 1956 (compared with 12,683 gasoline Escalades). Brightdrop reported 274 sales, up from 256 last year; the vans are made in Canada and are having a hard time competing against Rivian’s. GM said its inventory had dropped by 8%, to 549,312; however, the relatively high inventory may help it to whether expected tariffs.
Like GM, Honda saw a large gain, rising 16% to 351,577, putting it well above Stellantis. Hyundai, though, set all time highs for March, the sixth consecutive month of record setting sales. Year to date, Hyundai sold 203,554 vehicles in the United States. That does not include Kia, which also set records for the quarter and the month—they had 198,850 sales, so Hyundai-Kia, combined, had 402,404 sales, walloping Stellantis and beating Honda as well.
Toyota reported a 0.9% gain, with 570,269 sales, putting it between GM and Ford. Stellantis has been the #4 automaker for some years, but this quarter appears to be #6 in its formerly home turf, the United States.
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.
Discover more from Stellpower - that Mopar news site
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.