Fiat-Chrysler's Sales Structure in 2011

Fiat Group Automobiles (Fiat Group Automobiles, FGA), Ferrari, Maserati, and Chrysler Group LLC (hereinafter referred to as Chrysler) are the current vehicle manufacturers of the FIAT Group. It holds 100% of Fiat Auto and Maserati, holds 90% of Ferrari, and acquires a 58.5% stake in Chrysler.

Among them, the two major super sports car brands Ferrari and Maserati's global shipments in 2011 were up 9.5% year-on-year and 8.5% year-on-year to 7,195 vehicles and 6,159 vehicles.

Fiat Auto's sales fell, and Chrysler’s double-digit growth Fiat Auto’s several brands: Fiat, Fiat Professional, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, and Abarth, as well as sales of Chrysler and Jeep brands. Chrysler company under Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, RAM brand, but also have Fiat brand sales.

In terms of shipments, Fiat Auto's sales fell 2.4% year-on-year to 2.033 million units in 2011, while Chrysler, which was struggling on the brink of bankruptcy, grew 25.5% year-on-year to 20.11 million vehicles. The total amounted to 4.044 million vehicles, a year-on-year increase of 9.8%. In terms of terminal sales, Chrysler’s sales in 2011 increased by 22.0% year-on-year to 1.855 million vehicles.

Although Chrysler’s annual sales were still lower than Fiat Auto's in 2011, sales in the fourth quarter of the year exceeded Fiat Auto. Chrysler’s fourth-quarter sales increased 42.1% year-on-year to 543,000 vehicles, while Fiat Auto's fell 5.5% year-on-year to 485,000 vehicles.

It is not difficult to see from the above that the sales performance of the acquired party has been significantly better than the original auto company of the acquirer. Of course, the significant increase in sales of Chrysler in 2011 was related to the recovery in the North American market, and the decline in sales of Fiat Auto was also inseparable from the decline in the European auto market. However, due to the uncertainty of the European auto market in 2012, Fiat Auto's sales performance may still be unsatisfactory, and Chrysler will continue to play the main force of Fiat Group's auto sales growth.

Here we look at the respective sub-brands and sub-market sales performance of these two companies.

Fiat Auto: 65.5% of global sales come from Brazil and Italy. 53.3% of sales come from EU-27 countries. Starting in 2009, Fiat Auto's largest market in the world has already been converted from Italy to Brazil. In 2009, the company sold 749,500 vehicles in Brazil, more than 720,900 vehicles in Italy. Since then, its sales in Brazil have continued to rise slightly, while sales in Italy have continued to decline.

In 2011, its sales in Brazil increased by 1.5% year-on-year to 773,000 units, and its sales in Italy decreased by 10.7% year-on-year to 559,000 vehicles. These two major markets accounted for 38.0% and 27.5% of their total global sales, totaling 65.5% (compared with a slight reduction of 66.6% in the two markets in 2010).

Figure 2: Global (sub-market) shipments of Fiat Auto in 2010 and 2011 (unit: 1,000 units)


Source: Fiat Group's preliminary financial report In 2011, its sales in the European Union (EU) outside Italy fell 2.7% to 525,000 vehicles, accounting for 25.8% of its global sales. With Italy, the EU-27 accounted for 53.3% of its global sales.

In 2011, sales of Fiat Auto in other parts of the world increased by 13.9% to 176,000 units.

Chrysler Corporation: North American sales decreased by 1.6 percentage points to 87.9%

In 2011, Chrysler’s sales in the United States (indicated volume) increased by 314,000 units from 1.13 million units in 2010 to 1.453 million units, representing a year-on-year growth rate of 27.6%, which is higher than its global average growth rate of 25.5%. The United States’ share of its global sales increased from 71.1% in 2010 to 72.3%.

In 2011, sales in Canada increased by 16,000 units to 233,000 units, while sales in Mexico increased by approximately 3,000 units to 81,000 units. Its total sales volume in North America, three countries is 1.767 million, accounting for 87.9% of its global sales, but it is 1.6 percentage points lower than the proportion in 2010 (89.5%).

Figure 3: Global (submarket) shipments of Chrysler in 2010 and 2011 (unit: 1,000 units)


Source: FIAT Group Preliminary Financial Report Note:

Iveco has been spun off from the Fiat Group to a newly formed company, the Fiat Industrial Group, so its sales are outside the scope of this article.