France LCV March 2013: Fiat Ducato first import to ever rank #1!

Fiat Ducato Panorama

* See the Top 80 best-selling models by clicking on the title! *

The French Light Commercial Vehicle market is the largest in Europe and resists better than its Passenger Car counterpart, down just 6% in March to 32,941 registrations, which brings the year-to-date total to 93,296 units, down 10% on 2012. I know LCV updates are not generally the most riveting bunch, but this month is making history in France. The French are well known for their chauvinism (and I count myself in them! :)) so much so that in the Passenger Car market, only one foreign model, the VW Polo, has ever managed to climb onto the monthly podium since the 1930s which is when my data stops.

Fiat Ducato Pick-up

With that in mind, I give you the most popular LCV in France in March: the Fiat Ducato! Yes that’s right. For the first time in the history of commercial vehicles in France, a foreign model manages to rank #1, a position until now reserved to the Renault Express, Kangoo or Clio when we look at the last 30 years. The start of the year is definitely a good timing for the Ducato: it had managed to rank as high as #2 in March, April and May last year. It sells 2,777 units for a 8.4% market share this month which interestingly is not its all-time best (2,945 sales and 8.6% last April).

Dacia Dokker

Other great performers include the Ford Transit up 5 spots on February to #10, the Fiat Scudo up 7 to #20, Ford Transit Custom up 5 to #28 and the Dacia Dokker up 9 to a best-ever #36, beating the #39 it reached last January.

Previous month: France LCV February 2013: Renault Clio takes the lead

One year ago: France LCV March 2012: Fiat Ducato up to #2

Full March 2013 Top 80 Ranking Table below.