(January 16, 2015) LONDON — FCA closed 2014 with sales in Europe up 3.5% to approximately 768,000 vehicles. In December, the group outpaced the market with a 7.2% year-over-year increase. For the Jeep brand, which posted worldwide sales of more than 1 million vehicles, European sales were up close to 70% for the year and 189.7% for the month of December.

Positive results also for the Fiat 500, which continued to lead the European A segment, and the Fiat Panda. The two models closed the year with a combined 28.7% segment share. The Fiat 500L was the best selling vehicle in the Small MPV segment with a share of nearly 22%.

In 2014, new passenger car registrations in Europe were up 5.4% to 13 million. The trend was also positive in December with registrations up 4.9% year-over-year to one million vehicles.

FCA's results for December reflected the strong contribution of new models, including the Jeep Renegade, which is already among the top 10 in its segment, and the 500X, which has already generated more than 1,500 orders. Demand for these two models will enable the addition of 1,500 new workers over the next three months at the Group's Melfi plant.

FCA posted sales increases in Italy (+1%), Germany (+5.1%; industry +2.9%), France (+0.9%; industry +0.3%), the UK (+12.5%; industry +9.3%) and Spain, where FCA achieved a 36.9% increase for the year, compared with 18.3% for the industry.

Fiat brand posted an increase in full-year sales to just over 586,000 vehicles (+2.2%) and market share was 4.5%. In December, brand sales totaled 39,300 vehicles (+0.4%) and share was 3.9%.

For major markets, full-year sales were up 0.8% in Italy, +0.5% in Germany, +11.8% in the UK and +42.7% in Spain.

2014 was undoubtedly the year of the Jeep, which sold more than 1,017,000 vehicles worldwide. In Europe, brand sales were up 69.6% over the prior year to 41,400 vehicles and share was up 10 basis points to 0.3%.

The year-over-year comparison was even more favorable in December, with sales increasing 189.7% over the same month in 2013 to 6,600 vehicles and market share 20 basis points higher at 0.7%.