The French automobile market remained on a downward trend in November, down -3.21% over one year.
It is hampered by the shortage of semiconductors, according to figures released on Wednesday by the Automotive Platform (PFA).
Manufacturers registered 121,995 cars over the month, against 126,047 in November 2020 and 172,731 in November 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We've never seen a month of November like this.
The figures are very low and we compare ourselves to a month of November 2020 when the concessions remained almost closed for 15 days, ”underlines François Roudier, of the PFA.
If the start of 2021 was better than the beginning of 2020, paralyzed by the Covid-19, sales have been weak again since June.
The market remains hit by the semiconductor crisis which, despite rather full order books, prevents vehicles from being delivered on time.
"All entry-level vehicles, which make volume, are sacrificed for the benefit of high-end and electric", emphasizes François Roudier.
Hyundai-Kia is the only group with increasing sales
Over the first eleven months of the year, the French market registered a slight increase of 2.53% over one year, with 1.5 million vehicles sold (i.e. -25% compared to the same period in 2019) . The leader Stellantis (resulting from the merger of PSA and Fiat) saw its sales fall by 30.5% compared to the first eleven months of 2019, with 510,640 vehicles sold. Its market share fell slightly to 34%, with poor scores for its Fiat and Opel brands in particular. Its competitor Renault posted a decrease of 28.21%, with a market share also slightly down, to 23.7%, despite good sales at Dacia. The Volkswagen group is resisting better with sales of -20.52% and a market share up slightly to 13.46%.
Toyota (6.20% market share) and BMW (4.25%) limit breakage, while Hyundai-Kia is the only group to see its sales increase since 2019, with 81,441 vehicles sold and 5.43% market share.
The PFA estimates that annual sales should be in 2021 "around 1.7 million vehicles".
Will the industry do slightly better than in its catastrophic year 2020?
"It will depend on the settings of trade and industry, not to mention the Covid factor, with the new variant," says François Roudier.
