QOTD: Does Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Need More Cars?

The American new vehicle market is evolving. Indeed, the rate of evolution suggests it may be evolving fast enough to be deemed a revolution.

Passenger car market share is down to 37 percent through the first five months of 2017. We’re not even a decade removed from a time when passenger cars accounted for more than half of all U.S. auto sales. Cars have lost 4 percentage points of U.S. market share in just the last year. While pickup trucks, SUVs, and crossovers added 225,000 sales, year-over-year, in the first five months of 2017, passenger car volume tumbled by more than 145,000 units.

As a result, automakers are giving up on cars. Not wholeheartedly, not across the board, not routinely. But in specific areas. And this couldn’t be more obvious at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, where the company no longer has entries in the two largest passenger car sectors. Heading into 2018, FCA’s car branch will market two Dodges, one Chrysler, and a handful of Fiats, Maseratis, and Alfa Romeos.

Is that enough? Or does Fiat Chrysler Automobiles need more cars?

Gone from FCA’s car lineup are the Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200, the lone remaining compact and midsize cars in the automaker’s U.S. lineup.

This leaves two full-size sedans: Dodge Charger and Chrysler 300 and a full-size coupe, the Dodge Challenger, in the mainstream section of the lineup. That trio of cars accounts for just 3 percent of America’s passenger car market.

The Fiat 500 will be FCA’s lone remaining small car of note. The Fiat 500L is an afterthought that generates barely more than 100 sales per month. The Fiat 124 Spider joins the Dodge Challenger on the sporty side of the lineup. Then there’s the Alfa Romeo Giulia and 4C, the former of which is still ramping up. (883 were sold in May.) Maserati also markets a trio of cars: two sedans plus the GranTurismo.

Together, all of these cars and the discontinued models produced 123,588 U.S. sales in the first five months of 2017, 41,993 (25 percent) fewer than during the same period of 2016. For perspective, Toyota and Lexus combine for roughly 84,000 car sales per month, Hyundai and Kia combine for 72,000 monthly car sales, General Motors and American Honda each sell roughly 64,000 cars per month, and the Ford Motor Company sells nearly 52,000 cars per month.

14 percent of FCA’s year-to-date U.S. sales volume is car-derived.

Should FCA forge ahead without a proper car lineup, safe in the knowledge that consumers want Jeeps and Rams, Grand Caravans and Pacificas? Safe in the knowledge that it would be a wasted effort because car consumers don’t want Dodge and Chrysler cars?

Or should FCA work harder to find a way to expand its car portfolio through midsize and compact partnerships?

[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]

Timothy Cain is a contributing analyst at The Truth About Cars and Autofocus.ca and the founder and former editor of GoodCarBadCar.net. Follow on Twitter @timcaincars.