France 1st Quarter 2015: Artificial recovery?

The Peugeot 308 is up 61% year-on-year at home so far in 2015.

* See the Top 250 best-selling models and Top 40 brands by clicking on the title *

There is a light at the end of the tunnel for the French new car market, stuck at two-decade-lows for the past couple of years. First Quarter 2015 sales are up 7% year-on-year to 477.326 units, however let’s keep in mind this improvement is artificial as it relies on strong demo, dealership and short-term rental sales. Private sales are stable at very weak levels with the private ratio to total market plunging below 50% for the first time in the history of automobile in the country. France is therefore not quite out of the woods yet.

Ford sales are up 24% in France…

In this context, the two main local manufacturers perform slightly better than the market and thus improve their share to 20.2% for Renault (+8%) and 17.5% for Peugeot (+10%) while Citroen (+0.4%) drops to 10.5%. Below Volkswagen, Dacia, after a full decade of uninterrupted growth, takes a breather in the absence of any true new model (-14%), now threatened by Ford up a snappy 24% to 4.6% share thanks to strong gains from the Mondeo (+115%), Kuga (+60%), Ka (+31%), Fiesta (+20%), Focus (+15%) and the arrival of the Ecosport. Nissan (+14%) and Fiat (+10%) also shine in the Top 10.

…while Mercedes sales are up an even more impressive 34%.

The race for the title of #1 luxury brand is getting very heated, as it is the case in a lot of markets curremtly. Audi keeps the lead but gains just 2% to 12.896 units whereas Mercedes (+34%) at 12.418 and BMW (+14%) at 12.102 are catching up fast. DS (-13%) at 7.418 is out of the race (for now?). Further down, let’s salute the excellent performances of Porsche (+129%), Hyundai, Smart (+64%), Mini (+59%), Lexus (+49%) and Mazda (+32%), but none better than Jeep, up 10-fold on its Q1 2014 score, going from 200 sales to 1,958 thanks to the Renegade (1.629 deliveries).

Still the favourite at home: the Renault Clio

The Renault Clio remains the most popular nameplate at home, even improving its market share to 6% thanks to sales up 15%. Reversely, the Peugeot 208 has peaked already (-1%) and is now threatened for the 2015 #2 spot overall by the Renault Captur (+31%) and most dangerously its big brother the Peugeot 308, up 64% thanks to a much improved 2nd generation and the success of the station wagon variant. The Peugeot 2008 is also still gearing up almost two years after launch at +22% in 5th place.

Citroen C4 Cactus

The Renault Twingo III (13.283 deliveries) is 27% above the previous generation at the same time last year, the VW Polo is the best-selling foreigner at #12 ahead of the VW Golf while the Ford Fiesta and Toyota Yaris overtake the Nissan Qashqai, a little handicapped by the arrival of the X-Trail (+1603%). Notice also the VW Passat up 83% to #33, the Mini nameplate up 3-fold on 2014 to #35 thanks to the arrival of the 5-door variant, the Hyundai i20 up 195% to #41 and the Mercedes C-Class up 137% to #49. The French place 3 all-new nameplates inside their home Top 30: the Citroen C4 Cactus is the most popular at #22, followed by the Peugeot 108 and Citroen C1 II. The VW Golf Sportsvan and Toyota Aygo II also manage to fit within the Top 50 while the Fiat 500X (#65) and Jeep Renegade (#70) post very promising starts.

Previous post: France March 2015: Renault, Peugeot and Mercedes lift market up 9%

One year ago: France March 2014: Renault Captur and Peugeot 2008 both in Top 4 for the first time

Full Q1 2015 Top 250 models and Top 40 brands vs. Full Q1 2014 figures below.