Jeep Drives Chrysler January Sales to 8-Year High

Analysts at Kelley Blue Book had projected sales at 145,000 and Edmunds.com had projected about 144,000 sales in January.

The company’s Jeep brand sold 51,523 units in January. Jeep has set a sales record every month since November 2013. Jeep sold 692,348 units in the United States in 2014, handily beating its previous annual record of 554,466 units in 1999. Jeep sold 15,154 Cherokees in January, compared with 10,500 in January 2014.

Ram pickups have a 57-month streak of year-over-year sales growth. January sales totaled 31,392, up 21% compared with January of 2014. Last year, Ram sold 469,139 pickups and cargo vans, a 28% gain compared with 2013.

Year over year, sales of the company’s Chrysler brand are up 11% as sales of the new Chrysler 200 finally picked up in January, with sales rising 30% year-over-year to 14,157 units.

Chrysler projected a seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales in the United States from all manufacturers at 17.0 million units for 2015, down from last month’s projection of 17.3 million. The company ended the month with 101 days supply of inventory, up from 72 days of supply at the end of November.

Chrysler’s shares traded up about 2.3% in Tuesday’s premarket session at $13.81. The current post-IPO range is $8.54 to $13.76.

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