Stellantis' global ranking hit by Europe, China weakness

Plunging sales in Europe and weakness in China meant that Stellantis would have been the No. 6 global automaker in the first three quarters of 2020.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group, the two automakers that are merging to create Stellantis, have been touting the combined entity as the world's fourth-largest car company. The assertion is based on both automakers' vehicles sales in 2019.

According to Automotive News Europe's calculations using figures from company reports, Stellantis would have been in sixth place based on FCA's and PSA's passenger car and light commercial vehicle sales through September 2020.

Combined global sales of FCA and PSA fell 33 percent to 3.89 million units in the first three quarters, compared with the same period in 2019. FCA's volume declined 30 percent to 2.27 million, while PSA's vehicle sales fell 37 percent to 1.62 million. Neither FCA nor PSA have reported fourth-quarter sales yet.

Stellantis drops to No. 6 from No. 4 because both FCA and PSA had steep sales declines in Europe during lockdowns imposed by governments to limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

PSA's volume fell more than FCA's because most of its sales are in Europe so the automaker did not benefit from China's quick rebound from the COVID-19 lockdowns, nor from a recovering North American market. FCA is also weak in China but a strong performance in the U.S. limited its global sales drop.

PSA's European sales declined by 39 percent to 1.38 million units in the first three quarters. FCA's European volume dropped 25 percent to 754,000.

While the global ranking of Stellantis is not key to the future success of the business, both FCA and PSA executives have said that combining the automakers into a larger entity will give them the scale to compete better with global giants such as Toyota and Volkswagen Group, as well as the ability to access more resources to invest in electrification and future technologies such as autonomous driving.

PSA CEO Carlos Tavares, who will become Stellantis CEO, has shown his ability to boost profits with his relentless focus on cutting costs. PSA posted an 8.5 percent operating margin in 2019, a record high for the company.

FCA and PSA expect to complete their merger on Jan. 16.