Subaru Corporation

Chrysler scored 67 out of 100 in the ACSI Automobile Study 2026, the lowest among 16 mass market brands and well below the segment average of 78. Toyota led the mass market rankings with a score of 83, followed by Subaru at 81. The survey, based on 6,699 responses collected from July 2025 to June 2026, evaluated factors including comfort, driving performance, safety, dependability, and technology. Chrysler, owned by Stellantis, sold fewer than 125,000 vehicles in 2024, an 80% decline from nearly 600,000 in 2005, and now offers only two minivan models. Stellantis has signaled a desire to revive the brand, but expanding the lineup into SUVs or pickups would create direct competition with its own Jeep and Ram brands, making a meaningful recovery nearly impossible without billions in investment.

U.S. electric-vehicle sales rose 15% in the second quarter to 247,226 units, driven by new model launches from Toyota and Subaru. Toyota tripled its U.S. EV sales with the BZ Woodland and C-HR, while Subaru doubled its EV sales after introducing the Trailseeker and Uncharted. Total industry volume remained more than 20% below the same period last year. In the used-EV market, second-quarter transactions rose 22% from a year earlier, and since the war in Iran began, the average U.S. transaction price for a used EV has increased 12% to $38,342, twice the rate of increase for used gasoline-powered vehicles, according to Cox Automotive.

Japan's weakening yen could deliver a combined profit upside of roughly 934 billion yen, or $5.8 billion, to the country's major automakers if the currency stays near current levels, according to Bloomberg estimates. Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Subaru, and Mazda all used more conservative exchange-rate assumptions in their forecasts, with Toyota's May forecast assuming 150 per dollar while the yen has been trading around 161. Toyota estimates that every 1 yen decline against the dollar adds 50 billion yen to operating profit, and Bloomberg-compiled analyst estimates average 4 trillion yen for Toyota's operating profit, above its 3 trillion yen forecast. The setup could strengthen further as energy and raw material costs ease, with crude down more than 30% in yen terms from its late-April peak, and Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Tatsuo Yoshida said the shift could become a major positive factor for Toyota and Honda. Outside automakers, the impact is more mixed, with airlines potentially benefiting from lower jet fuel prices but still facing dollar-linked cost pressures, while a survey showed 40.7% of companies said the late-May exchange rate near 159 per dollar had a negative impact.