As the United States heads into a holiday weekend, automakers are announcing sales numbers for the second quarter of 2022. As of this post on July 1, we are still awaiting information from Ford, General Motors, and a few others. The figures we do have paint a bleak picture, save for one very unexpected number from Chrysler.
While other automakers generally report Q2 sales drops ranging from 10 to 50 percent, the storied Detroit brand blew the figurative roof off the industry with a 95 percent increase. That's obviously a huge number, but keep in mind that Chrysler only has two vehicles in showrooms right now – three if you consider the Pacifica and Pacifica Hybrid as separate entities. Percentage-wise, it's huge. But we're still talking low sales volume compared to most other brands.
When it comes to sales reporting, Chrysler lumps the standard and hybrid models together and 32,097 units were sold in Q2. Last year, only 13,229 Pacificas found homes for the same period, resulting in a 143 percent increase for the minivan. With other Chrysler sales factored in, the automaker's scale balances at a 95 percent gain for the quarter, and a 13 percent gain through the first half of 2022. The only other company to post a gain thus far is Subaru, edging up ever-so-slightly at 0.7 percent. However, Subaru's report only covers the month of June.
In its Q2 announcement, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles did explain that the Pacifica's sales jump was driven by a backlog of fleet orders. The company also mentioned the Hybrid accounted for 13 percent of total Pacifica sales, though that breakdown wasn't listed in FCA's sales chart.
Gallery: 2021 Chrysler Pacifica AWD: First Drive
Chrysler's stablemates in the FCA realm didn't fare nearly as well for the quarter. Ram was down 27 percent and Dodge fell 30 percent. By comparison, Jeep's 11-percent decline doesn't seem so bad, but then you get to Fiat. US sales fell a jaw-dropping 72 percent, though as with Chrysler, Fiat is a low-volume brand.
As for other manufacturers, Kia registered a modest drop of 4.9 percent for the month of June (no quarterly report was available) with Hyundai down 13 percent in the quarter. Japanese companies took the chip shortage on the chin though; Honda fell 50.7 percent and Acura fell even harder at 51.2 percent. Nissan and Infiniti have similar drops of 38.6 and 40.9 percent, But Toyota and Lexus fared a bit better at 18.3 and 15.2 percent, respectively.
We will jump in with an update once we receive sales figures from other brands.
