Stellantis’ global shipments of vehicles rose by 12% in the first quarter, another piece of positive news for the automaker, which was the sole Detroit 3 entity to post a sales gain so far this year.
Shipments, released April 15, is a statistic that tracks how many new vehicles the company moved to dealers or buyers. Globally, the company shipped about 1.4 million cars in the first quarter, about 140,000 more than it moved during the same fiscal period last year.
The release of the figures, which the company said are currently unaudited and subject to change, comes about two weeks after another report of growth for Stellantis, the parent company of brands such as Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Fiat and Alfa Romeo.
On April 1, the company said it achieved a 4% sales increase in North America in the first quarter, bucking an industry-wide trend of sales losses.
Success in North America drove the growth in shipments, with the company reporting an increase of 54,000 shipments in the region alone. Stellantis said the HEMI-powered Ram 1500s, and two Jeep models — the Grand Wagoneer and the Cherokee — led the growth in the region.
The Jeep Compass, however, offset some of that increase. The automaker said the Compass, which is produced at the same plant in Mexico where the new Cherokee is being built, has been slow to get out of the plant.
Stellantis has said the Compass will soon be built in the United States at the long-idled Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois after previously promising to build the car in Brampton, Ontario, Canada.
Despite the growth, Stellantis did note that the ongoing war in Iran affected some of its business in the Middle East. Shipments to the Gulf Cooperation Council — an economic union of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — were cut in half, to around 3,000 vehicles.
Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa took the helm of the company in June 2025 and has been aggressive in pursuing a rebound for the automaker after years of losing market share. The full plans for Stellantis’ strategic reset will be unveiled on May 21 in Detroit.
Liam Rappleye covers Stellantis and the UAW for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him: LRappleye@freepress.com.