France 1-18 May 2015: Peugeot 308 dominates

Can the Peugeot 308 finish the month in pole position at home?

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The French new car market is up a very shy 3% year-on-year so far in May but could end the month in negative given there are two less working days this month compared to May 2014. As usual, Peugeot (10.720 sales) and Citroen (6.333) front-load their month while Renault (6.116) does exactly the opposite, but this month Peugeot is up 9% year-on-year and Renault down 15%, so either the front- and back-loading is accentuating or Renault is having a particularly bad month on top of it. We’ll know early next week when the full May figures are published. Nissan and Toyota climb to #5 and #6 while Ford is up 26% to #7 and Dacia down 28% to a very unusual 9th place.

Peugeot 2008 sales are up 36% year-on-year so far in May.

The Peugeot 308 continues to post spectacular figures month after month and holds the pole position so far this month by a very large margin thanks to sales up 49% year-on-year to 3.787 vs. 2.562 for the Peugeot 208 (+13%) and 2.181 for the Peugeot 2008 (+36%), making the podium 100% Peugeot with all nameplates in frank improvement. The Renault Clio lags behind in 4th place with 2.030 units (-17%) which means the month-end will be a tight race for the top spot. The Citroen C4 Picasso is up to a brilliant 5th place whereas the Renault Scénic doesn’t make it (yet) into the Top 10, and the Peugeot 3008 reappears at #8 while the Renault Captur is down a worrying 34% at #10.

Previous month: France April 2015: Peugeot 308 and 2008 overtake Renault Captur

One year ago: France 1-22 May 2014: Peugeot 308 up 88% to climb on podium

Full 1-18 May 2015 Top 10 brands and models below.