Europe is slowly but surely climbing out of the corona valley, which of course has a positive effect on consumer behavior. In France, car sales grew by just under 4 percent in July, continuing the upward trend that started in June.
The French car market recorded a subtle plus of 1.2 percent in June, but the figures looked even rosier in July. Last month, 178,982 new cars were sold in France, an increase of 3.9 percent compared to the same month last year. This is evident from figures from the Comité des Constructeurs Français d’Automobiles. The small growth obviously pales in comparison to the exceptionally poor sales results recorded in the months of March (-72 percent), April (-89 percent) and May (-57 percent). In the first seven months of this year, 1,338,667 passenger cars were sold in France, more than 33 percent less than in the same period last year.
Renault sold 33,481 passenger cars in July, making it the absolute winner (+41.5 percent), followed by Peugeot with 32,737 units sold and Citroën with 15,836 cars. Dacia follows in fourth place with 11,397 cars (+14.8 percent). Although Groupe PSA saw its sales decline in July compared to the same month last year (-5.3 percent), with a total of 55,366 cars sold in July, it was the group that scored the best, followed by Groupe Renault with 44,962 cars sold (+ 32.6 percent). The Volkswagen Group sold 13.1 percent fewer cars in July. Within this concern, Volkswagen (-25.5 percent, 9,730 units) and Audi (-12.7 percent, 4,477 cars) were hit particularly hard. Skoda and Porsche achieved good growth figures of 21.7 and 16.5 percent respectively. Jaguar Land Rover had a dramatic sales month with a sales decline of 39.3 percent. Jaguar sold with 125 cars 53 percent less than in July last year, Land Rover saw its sales decrease 33.8 percent to 444 units. Kia and Hyundai together accounted for a 25.8 percent increase in sales and together put on 9,480 new passenger cars.
Of all 1,338,667 passenger cars sold this year, 50.3 percent are equipped with a petrol engine, 31 percent have a diesel engine under the hood. 11.8 percent is a (plug-in) hybrid, while 6.1 percent of that number has a fully electric drivetrain. The Peugeot 208 is the most popular car in France to date with 48,583 units sold, followed by the Renault Clio (47,456 units) and the Peugeot 2008 (33,206 units). The complete top-5 also consists of cars from a French group. In places 4 and 5 we come across the Citroën C3 (29,794 units) and the Dacia Sandero (28,873). In fact, there is only one non-French model in the complete top ten. The Toyota Yaris closes the top 10 with 20,194 copies sold.
Sales summit January 10-July 2020
