Welcome to today's edition of the Daily 5.
The U.S. sales performance for Stellantis sunk from bad to worse in the third quarter of the year.
It wasn't a banner quarter for the industry as a whole (down 2.4 percent as of today), but the results from Stellantis' leading U.S. brands should be sounding alarms in North America and at the automaker's headquarters in Amsterdam.
Total U.S. deliveries plunged 20 percent to 305,294 — and are down 17 percent year to date. Jeep fell 6.2 percent and Ram was down 19 percent. Chrysler, Dodge and Alfa Romeo slipped as well. Fiat was up, but it only delivered 316 vehicles.
Given the labor, manufacturing and supply chain issues plaguing the automaker, these sales results reinforce the uncomfortable questions already facing Stellantis management.
The news was better at Tesla today, with global electric vehicle deliveries rising 6.4 percent to 462,890, but the gain didn't satisfy Wall Street analysts so Tesla stock fell. Cox Automotive estimated that Tesla's U.S. sales declined 2.4 percent. We'll know more when U.S. registration data comes out in a few months.
In another third-quarter report, Ford Motor Co. managed to improve U.S. deliveries 0.7 percent to 500,495 vehicles. Strong gains in hybrids and EVs offset a small drop in gasoline-powered vehicle sales.
In other news, we reported on a Chevrolet dealership acquisition in Houston by billionaire Tilman Fertitta. Whether the NBA's Houston Rockets owner will now be making more U.S. dealership buys is the question.
We're also taking a closer look at the increased presence of advanced driver-assist technologies in new vehicles. These systems have become a lot more common than you might think.
Looking ahead to tomorrow, we'll analyze how the supply chain is dealing with cybersecurity threats in the wake of several significant attacks in recent months.
That's it for now. Have a great rest of your day.
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— Philip Nussel, online editor
