FCA US LLC notched four U.S. sales records for April, highlighting consumer demand for the company’s brands despite continued softness within the industry.
FCA sold 172,900 vehicles in the month compared to 184,149 vehicles for the same period a year earlier. Retail sales accounted for 129,382 vehicles and fleet accounted for 25 percent of total sales. On a year-to-date basis, fleet accounted for 27 percent of total sales.
The Jeep® Compass and Jeep Grand Cherokee both reported April records as sales rose 10 percent and 23 percent, respectively. This was the second consecutive month Grand Cherokee set a record monthly high.
The Ram brand achieved its fourth consecutive month of record sales for the year, as April sales rose 25 percent to 53,811 vehicles. Ram pickup sales also had their second consecutive month of record sales with 49,106 vehicles sold.
"April marks the start of the spring selling season and we anticipate strong consumer spending as we move through May,” U.S Head of Sales Reid Bigland said. "The industry may be shaking off the first-quarter sluggishness, but shoppers are coming into showrooms and buying. We sold more than 300 Jeep Gladiators, which are now starting to arrive in showrooms across the country, and we expect our Gladiator count to continue to rise, reflecting both ongoing demand and the fulfillment of the 4,190 orders taken in early April for the 2020 Gladiator Launch Edition."
See the attached table for the breakdown of brand and nameplate sales.
FCA US and FCA Canada Will Move to Quarterly Reporting of Sales
After review, FCA US LLC will end its practice of reporting U.S. and Canada sales on a monthly basis following June results.
“A quarterly sales reporting cadence will continue to provide transparency of our sales results while at the same time aligning with where industry practice is heading,” said Niel Golightly, FCA’s Chief Communications Officer.
FCA US and FCA Canada will report monthly sales for May and June. The first quarterly report will occur on October 1, 2019, covering the months of July, August and September. FCA will continue to share certain sales data with third-party research firms, under appropriate confidentiality arrangements.
Method of Determining FCA US LLC’s Monthly Sales. FCA US’s reported vehicle sales represent unit sales of vehicles to retail customers, deliveries of vehicles to fleet customers and to others such as FCA US’s employees and retirees as well as vehicles used for marketing. Most of these reported sales reflect retail sales made by dealers out of their own inventory of vehicles previously purchased by them from FCA US. Reported vehicle units sales do not correspond to FCA US’s reported revenues, which are based on FCA US’s sale and delivery of vehicles, and typically recognized upon shipment to the dealer or end customer. As announced on July 26, 2016, FCA US has modified its methodology for monthly sales reporting as follows: - Sales to retail customers by dealers in the U.S. are derived from the New Vehicle Delivery Report (“NVDR”) system and are determined as the sum of (A) all sales recorded by dealers during the month net of all unwound transactions recorded to the end of that month (whether the original sale was recorded in the current month or any prior month); plus (B) all sales of vehicles during that month attributable to past unwinds that had previously been reversed in determining monthly sales (in the current or prior months).
- Fleet sales are recorded upon the shipment of the vehicle by FCA US to the customer or end user.
- Other retail sales are recorded either (A) when the sale is recorded in the NVDR system (for sales by dealers in Puerto Rico and limited sales made through distributors that submit NVDRs in the same manner as for sales by U.S. dealers) or (B) upon receipt of a similar delivery notification (for vehicles for which NVDRs are not entered such as vehicles for FCA employees).
