FCA gained – even without fleets

When the June U.S. sales figures came in, there was some talk of companies “dumping” cars into fleet sales to keep the numbers up.

It turns out that was partly true, but FCA would have gained anyway, according to the latest Automotive News figures, which estimated the company’s June 2015 retail sales at 146,200 and its June 2016 retail sales at 147,100.

FCA did boost its fleet sales by over 28% from June 2016; retail sales were 75% of the total, down from 79% last June. Ford also increased its reliance on fleets (from 35% to 37%) while GM cut back (from 20% to 18%), which may explain why Ford gained in pickup sales.

FCA was the second largest fleet seller in America in June as GM cut back.  However, they were tied for third place in reliance on fleets: after Ford came Hyundai-Kia with 29% of their sales going to fleets, and then FCA US and Nissan were tied with 25% each. Toyota and Honda have a much lower presence in fleet sales.

With another 5,000 cars sold to retail buyers, FCA would have beaten Ford.