CHICAGO, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) reported on Thursday strong financial performance in 2017, with its net profit nearly doubled.

FCA said high-margin trucks and SUVs helped push its net profit up by 93 percent from 2016 to nearly 4.35 billion U.S. dollars, even as overall sales dropped 8 percent.

The FCA US has announced that it will make average profit sharing payments of 5,500 dollars to eligible employees.

Sergio Marchionne, the CEO of FCA, expressed that he was pleased with the company's financial performance in 2017, as the automaker was making continuous progress on a five-year strategic plan since 2014, designed to boost the company's presence globally and improve its profits.

On Wednesday, Ford Motor Company reported its 2017 net income as 7.6 billion U.S. dollars, up 65 percent from 2016.

However, the company's overall adjusted pre-tax profit dropped 1.9 billion from 2016 to 8.4 billion U.S. dollars, dragged down by its automotive segment, which suffered a drop of 2.2 billion in pre-tax profit from a year ago.

In contrast, Ford Credit showed a better performance in 2017, with a pre-tax profit increase of 23 percent from the previous year to 2.3 billion U.S. dollars.