France 1-15 January 2015: Peugeot 308 leads the way

The Peugeot 308 is the best-selling nameplate in France so far this year.

* See the Top 10 best-selling models and brands by clicking on the title *

After a couple of months hiatus, the weekly updates on the French market are back on BSCB with an encouraging 14% overall year-on-year gain over the first half of January. As a reminder these intermediate figures are always to be taken with a grain of salt as heavily biased by manufacturers policies of either front-loading (Volkswagen) or back-loading (Renault) a month of sales, as well as promotions. In January needs to be added manufacturers that have particularly pushed sales at the end of 2014 and find themselves in a limping mode at the start of the year. In this context, Peugeot leads the manufacturers ranking with sales up 18% year-on-year above Citroen (-11%) while Volkswagen (+34%) stunningly overtakes traditional leader Renault (-6%), very temporarily for sure. Nissan (+7%), Audi (+17%), Mercedes (+95%) and Opel (+79%) are also up.

The VW Polo is up 64% year-on-year to climb on the French podium.

The Peugeot 308 is the best-selling nameplate in the country for now, seeing its sales more than double year-on-year thanks to the addition of the station wagon version and the hatchback now cruising at top speed. It is followed by the Peugeot 208 (-12%) while the VW Polo (+64%) and Golf (+32%) both fit inside the Top 4 best-sellers! The Citroen C4 Picasso is up 9% to #5 and the Peugeot 2008 up 32% to #6.

Previous post: France Full Year 2014: Renault Captur on podium

Previous month: France December 2014: BMW and Mercedes finish on a high

Full 1-15 January 2015 Top 10 models and brands Ranking Tables below.