New car sales continued to rise in April but numbers remain well below pre-Covid levels.
The recovery continues in the French automobile market. According to figures published by the Automotive Platform (PFA), registrations of new passenger cars increased by 21.9% in April compared to the same month of the previous year with the Dacia and Renault brands among the most popular.
Over the first 4 months of the year, automobile manufacturers recorded 553,396 new registrations, an increase of 16.7%. Figures on the rise, but the market is nowhere near as strong as it was before the pandemic.
Dacia and Renault are popular
On the brand side, Dacia and Renault are driving sales with respective increases of 63.4% and 50.7% for the month of April. Overall, Renault group sales increased by more than 50% over the month.
Stellantis, another giant in the sector, recorded a more modest increase in its new registrations at 5.7% in April over one year. Its Citroën and Peugeot brands publish increases of 10.6% and 6.1% respectively, while its Fiat and Jeep brands show significant declines in new registrations.
“We find the figures for 2021”
“It’s positive, we are starting to deliver vehicles more or less normally (…) We find the figures for 2021,” said François Roudier, spokesperson for the Automotive Platform at the microphone of BFM Business to start on a positive note.
He continues by noting that “when we compare to before Covid, we are still 30% below what a month of April should have been.”
François Roudier also doubts that the French automobile market can return to pre-Covid levels because of problems with manufacturing and deliveries of semiconductors, but also because of a declining supply of entry-level vehicles.
+15% for electric
Electric vehicles represented 13% of sales in April and 15% over the first 4 months of the year. Including hybrid vehicles, the increase is 21% in April.
“We currently have a price war which is really pushed by Tesla but not by the rest of the industry,” notes François Roudier about competition in the electric market.
