12% Of New Car Sales Now Fully Electric In France!
Plugin vehicles continue to rise in France, with last month’s plugin vehicle registrations ending at 33,851 units, divided between 21,888 BEVs (or 13% share of the overall auto market) and 11,963 PHEVs (7% share of the overall auto market). The former climbed 5% year over year (YoY), while the latter was actually down by 28%, it’s steepest fall since the covid-hit month of April 2020.
With the overall market continuing to drop off a cliff, down 14% YoY and down a significant 34% compared to 2019 (the market’s last normal year), plugins reached 20% share of the market last month (12% BEV).
The year-to-date (YTD) registrations are now over 156,154 units, keeping the market share of plugin vehicles at 20% (12% BEV). This is already 2 percentage points above the result in all of 2021, and is a good 9-percentage-point increase over the 2020 result (11% plugin vehicle share). Expect the market to end above 20% by the end of the year.
For some powertrains to go up, others need to come down, and that is what is happening to regular petrol and diesel sales. The former (petrol) represented 38% of sales last month, and the latter (diesel) fell even harder, getting just 17% of the market’s sales. Its sales dove a steep 28% compared to a year ago. At this pace, diesel sales will be dead in two to three years.
Peugeot e-208 Wins in 20% Plugin Share Market Of France
Last month’s best seller was the Peugeot e-208, which scored a record 2,860 registrations. Following the electric Pug, we have two Renaults on the podium. The Twingo EV was in 2nd, with 2,158 registrations, also a new record, while the Zoe was in 3rd, with 2,048 registrations, its best score this year.
Still on Renault, the new Megane EV jumped to 5th, with a record 1,854 deliveries. That meant there were three Renault BEVs in the top 5!
Tesla had its usual end-of-quarter peak month. The Model Y ended in 4th with 1,964 registrations, a new record. The Model 3 was 8th with 1,047 registrations, but this might have more to do with production constraints (Model Ys are being delivered from China and Germany, while the Model 3 only comes from China).
Interestingly, the best selling PHEV was only 9th on the table. The Mercedes-Benz GLC PHEV beating the usual category winner, the Peugeot 3008 PHEV, despite registering only 744 deliveries.
In the second half of the table, we have the Hyundai Kona EV scoring a near record month, with 618 registrations. That put it in 12th position. SAIC’s MG ZS EV joined the table in #19, thanks to 455 registrations, its best score so far this year. Another crossover, the Kia Sportage PHEV, increased on its previous record score in May (447 registrations) and got to 543 registrations in June.
A final mention goes out to the record result of the Citroen e-C4 EV, 568 registrations. The slow production ramp-up of Citroen’s hatchback that thinks it’s a crossover resulted in it ending the month only 8 units behind its cousin, the Peugeot 308 PHEV.
Below the top 20, the Opel Corsa EV (306 registrations) had a solid score, slightly above its crossover sibling Opel Mokka EV’s record result (304 registrations). In the VW universe, the VW ID.3 (318 units), VW ID.4 (245), and Skoda Enyaq (294) had year-best scores. That could be a sign that the MEB-based models could witness a comeback in the second half of the year. Even the little VW e-Up (226 registrations) had its best score of the last 15 months. Is Volkswagen Group preparing a comeback?
Looking at the 2022 ranking, there is a change at the leadership level, with the Peugeot e-208 finally ascending to the top leadership spot thanks to Peugeot’s recent delivery push. It surpassed the Dacia Spring and Fiat 500e on the way, but with fewer than 1,000 units separating these three, anything can still happen!
The Renault Zoe switched places with the Tesla Model 3 and is now 4th in what was a really positive month for Renault. The veteran Twingo EV was also up to #6 (with an economic crisis on the horizon, cheaper EVs have seen demand increases), while the future star of the French automaker’s stable, the Megane EV, joined the table in #14 and should join the top half of the table soon.
The Climber of the Month was the Tesla Model Y. It jumped seven spots into 8th. With the increased availability of Made in Germany Model Ys, we could see it surpass the Model 3 in the second half of the year.
Still regarding the top 20, we have the Citroen e-C4 climbing to #16, confirming that the French hatchback is still on an upward trend.
With the Megane EV joining the table, we now have only 6 PHEVs on the top 20, and the #17 DS 7 PHEV and #19 Hyundai Tucson PHEV are on the verge of losing their positions there.
Looking at the brand ranking, the top two brands remained stable, but Peugeot (15.4%, down from 15.8%) lost significant ground to Renault (13.8%, up from 12.2%). The latter is closing in on the leader thanks to another good month from its BEV lineup. The last place on the podium remains with Tesla (7.5%, up from 7.1%). It should regain a couple more points of market share by the end of Q3.
Off the podium, Dacia (5.9%, down from 6.4%) lost the 4th position to Mercedes-Benz (6.0%, down from 6.2%). With the aforementioned two brands losing ground, #6 Fiat (5.8%) could join the top 5 next month.
As for OEMs, Stellantis is the major force in this market, with a commanding 31% share. The Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance is sitting comfortably in #2, with 21%, up 1 percentage point, and Hyundai–Kia is in 3rd, with 9.6%.
Off the podium, we have Volkswagen Group in 4th, with 7.6% share, immediately followed by Tesla, which surpassed BMW Group (7.2%) last month.
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