Italy

In a statement, Stellantis said its third quarter consolidated vehicle shipments are expected to fall by 20 percent, owing to continuing challenges in business performance and the need to manage excess inventories. The automaker recently downgraded its profit and cash flow forecasts for the year and it is the basis of this projection.

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The company says global shipments for the third quarter will be around 1.15 million vehicles, which is down from 1.43 million the same time the previous year. Meantime, the underlying sales decline of 20% compared to previous estimates of 15% reflects temporary impacts from product portfolio transition and dealer inventory reduction initiatives.

Shipments in North America, a key market for Stellantis, dropped 171,000, or 36 percent. The reductions were more than 100,000, attributable to planned output cuts ahead of new model launches due by the end of 2024. But Stellantis managed to make gains in its US market share, to 8 percent by the end of September, as inventories fell by 50,000 vehicles from the second quarter.

Shipments in the Enlarged Europe region slumped about 100,000 vehicles, or 17 percent, as delays in introducing new models hit: that included the Citroen C3, which only started shipping in September.

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Stellantis adjusted its target for 2024 operating profit margin lower to 6 percent in September and said it could burn up to 10 billion euros in cash this year. The company pledged to cut output and sell big discounts to restore its US market presence.

The automaker will announce on October 31 its third quarter shipment and sales data. It also started this practice of publishing company’s global quarterly shipment estimate and other insights about related of business trends. In particular, those shipments from its luxury brand Maserati will plummet some 60 percent to 2,100 vehicles during the quarter.