The French automobile market remained stable in 2021 compared to 2020, but it is down 25.1% compared to 2019 before the pandemic, according to raw figures from the Automotive Platform (PFA) released on Saturday.
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If the start of 2021 had been better than the beginning of 2020, paralyzed by the Covid-19 pandemic, sales figures have been weak again since June.
The figures for December are still bad with a drop in new passenger car registrations of 15.1% over one year and 25.1% compared to 2019. They fell by 13.7% at Stellantis and by 11.6 % for the Renault Group.
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Significant drop in production
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The catastrophic level of new car sales in 2020 gave hope for a strong rebound in 2021. But the health crisis has been added to the shortage of semiconductors, which has led to a significant drop in production, and registrations do not show in the end that a derisory increase of 0.5%
"over the year, commented the firm AAAdata.
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Stellantis, the result of the merger of PSA (Peugeot, Citroën, DS and Opel) and FCA (Fiat, Jeep, Alfa Romeo ...), remains in first place over the whole of 2021 with 33.8% of the market passenger vehicles - a perimeter excluding commercial vehicles -, but the group has lost 1.5 points of market share with registrations down 3.7% in one year.
Its rival, the Renault group, in full transition to a strategy based more on unit margins than on volumes, saw them drop by 4.1% compared to 2020, with 23.9% of the French market (-1 , 1 point).
Registrations of the Romanian brand Dacia increased by 28.8%, while those of Renault plunged by 14.5%.
Peugeot (Stellantis) has also passed the diamond brand, and the 208 II was the best-selling car in France last year.
The first foreign group, Volkswagen, saw its registrations increase by 7.9% in 2021. The German giant's market share reached 13.3% (+0.9 point).
Decrease in the share of diesel cars
In total, 1,659,008 new passenger cars were put on the roads of France last year, against 1,650,118 in 2020 and 2,214,279 in 2019. There are only 21.1% of diesel vehicles among the cars. new (a figure down 9.5 points in one year), while the share of hybrids rose to 25.8% (+11 points) and that of electric vehicles to 9.8% (+3.1 points ).
Sedans fell below 50% of the market (-1 point to 49%), while SUVs and all-terrain vehicles rose to 43% (+4 points).
The second-hand market, on the other hand, is booming, with 6.016 million vehicles having changed hands in 2021 (+ 8%), according to AAAdata.
