Stellantis Takes 4 Out Of Top 5 Spots In July In France! (Plugin Vehicle Sales Report)

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

---

After a record month in June, the French plugin vehicle market took some time to breathe in July, with last month’s plugin registrations ending at 18,247 units, just 5% above July 2020. In isolation, the number sounds meh, but it is still the best July ever, and if you compare it with the overall market, which is down 33% compared to (pre-Covid) July 2019, then things look much more positive. Regarding the plugin vehicle share of the country’s overall auto market, it reached 16% last month (6.5% BEV). Plugin hybrids did outsell pure electrics, as the 59% PHEV vs. 41% BEV sales breakdown shows.

The year-to-date (YTD) registrations are now over 162,000 units, keeping the plugin vehicle market share at a record 16% (7.7% BEV). That is a good 5 percentage point increase over the 2020 result (11%), and it looks like France is on target for the 20% share I previously predicted for the whole year.

Last month’s best seller was the Peugeot 3008 PHEV, thanks to 1,478 deliveries. In fact, the French brand took two positions on the podium, as its e-208 took Bronze, with 898 registrations, just 250 below the Silver medalist, the Renault Zoe.

Speaking of the French hatchback, it seems the Renault model is recovering, having scored another runner-up spot. I expect it to have a stronger second half of the year and take a couple of monthly wins.

In 4th and 5th, we have two more Stellantis representatives, with the small Fiat 500e ending in #4 while the crossover Citroen C5 Aircross PHEV was #5, thus making it 4 Stellantis models in July’s top 5 best sellers.

And highlighting the current domination of the multinational conglomerate in this market, there are 8 Stellantis models in the top 20 — 4 Peugeots, 1 Fiat, 1 Citroen, 1 DS, and 1 Jeep (and, strangely, no Opels …). So, it seems the multibrand strategy of the group is working here.

Elsewhere in the first half of the table, we have the success of the #6 Hyundai Tucson PHEV. In only its third month on the market, it is already closing in on the top 5 and was last month’s best selling foreigner*. Expect the popular Korean SUV to continue riding this wave of success, probably scoring a top 5 position soon. (*As the Fiat 500e belongs to Stellantis, one might consider it an honorary French model. …)

Elsewhere, a mention goes out to the great score of the #10 Jeep Compass PHEV, which scored a near record 397 registrations, an impressive performance for the SUV model, considering that July and August are slow selling months in France.

In the second half of the table, we welcome the return of the Mini Cooper EV, in 14th, with 341 registrations, while the Audi Q3 PHEV shows up in #20.

Below the top 20, it was a slow month too, with future best sellers also switching off into the holiday season, like the cases of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 (129 registrations in July, 278 in June), Audi Q4 e-tron (50 units, against 119 in the previous month), amd Ford Mustang Mach-E (112 units).

Still, there was one relevant(ish) landing last month, with the Peugeot e-Rifter, a compact van-with-windows MPV starting its career with 69 units. Do not expect a top 20 position from it, but it will be another busy bee making its contribution to the total tally of Peugeot and Stellantis.

Looking at the 2021 ranking, it was a slow month in the top half of the table, with the most relevant thing being the fact that the #8 Citroen C5 Aircross PHEV is coming closer to the #7 Renault Twingo EV. Expect the small Renault to lose another position soon, after recently losing the city car category leadership position to the Fiat 500e. Maybe internal competition (the Dacia Spring) is hurting the French model’s sales?…

The second half of the table had more to talk about. First, we have the crossover Peugeot e-2008 climbing to #11, while in #15 we now have the Hyundai Kona EV, which surpassed the Volkswagen ID.3 last month.

Also relevant is the fact that we have two fresh faces in the table. The Hyundai Tucson PHEV jumped to #18, with the striking Korean SUV set for higher positions soon. The Jeep Compass PHEV also joined the table, in #20, thus making it 8(!) Stellantis models in the top 20.

Looking at the manufacturer ranking, Peugeot (17%, up 2 percentage points) has gained distance over Renault (15%) in the race for the title, while Tesla (8% share, down 1 point) closes out the podium ahead of Mercedes and Volkswagen, both with 6% share. A rising Hyundai is now at 5% share.

As for OEMs, Stellantis is the major force, with a commanding 31% share. The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance is far behind in #2, with only 16% share, while the best foreign OEM is Volkswagen Group, with 13% share.

Off the podium, we now have a rising Hyundai–Kia partnership (9%, up 1 point) in 4th. That after surpassing Daimler. And BMW Group switched positions with Tesla (8%, down 1) last month, with the Californian maker now waiting for September to recover.