FCA Sales Surge on Alfa Romeo, Jeep Gains

FCA US sales continued to pick up steam in June, gaining 4.2% on a daily-sales basis powered by a whopping 113% jump in Alfa Romeo deliveries and a 14.5% increase in Jeep sales, Wards Intelligence data shows.

The Dodge brand boasted a 5.0% increase while the Ram brand chipped in 3.1%, while Chrysler was off 34.2% and Fiat fell 38.8% on a daily-sales basis. June had 27 selling days, one more than 2017.

On a volume basis, FCA US was up 4.7% for the first half of 2018, led by an 8.5% increase in truck volume offset by a 19.3% drop in car sales as the Italian-American automaker dumps car brands and boosts its offerings of trucks and SUVs.

Jeep is propelling strong gains for FCA, led by the Cherokee (+81.6%) and the Compass (+75.4%). The all-new Wrangler posted an 18.1% increase in June and overall deliveries were up nearly 35% for the year.

Alfa Romeo is posting dazzling increases but on small volumes, with a total of 12,265 deliveries in the first half, compared with 23,110 Wrangler sales in June alone.

Ram pickup sales dipped 2.1% in June, but the Ram brand was buoyed by strong sales of the ProMaster commercial van with a nearly 81% gain for the month, Wards Intelligence data shows.

Chrysler brand sales were hit by a 29.2% downturn deliveries of the Pacifica minivan, although overall volume for the minivan was up 5.7% for the year. Dodge got a boost from the long-in-the-tooth Journey CUV, which saw a 79% increase. Fiat continued to fall with sales plummeting across its lineup.