Not content with Jeep’s record 2013 sales, Chrysler-Fiat chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne stated on Tuesday that the off-road marque will sell more than 1 million vehicles during the 2014 calendar year.
“We are going to break the million mark this year,” Marchionne said today in an interview on WJR-AM radio, according to Bloomberg. “When you start talking about 1 million in 2014, we have really taken that brand a long way, and there’s a long way to go.”
Marchionne’s goal represents a significant jump over the record-setting 731,565 units Jeep sold worldwide last year. Marchionne’s target is also at odds with Jeep CEO Mike Manley. Although Manley envisions the Jeep brand growing to 1 million annual sales, he doesn’t realistically foresee that happening until 2015.
“If the new Cherokee is successful here and in international markets, we should be able to take a big chunk out of that remaining 300,000 we need for the million,” Manley said. “It’s a stretch to say we would do it in ’14, but if not in ’14, we should certainly be on track in ’15.”
While it might be a stretch to hit 1 million sales in 2014, Jeep has proven that it can grow sales rapidly. Jeep’s annual shipments have ballooned from 276,000 units to 780,000 units in just four short years.