France 1-9 July 2018: Citroen has C3, C3 Aircross & C4 Cactus in Top 8

The Citroen C4 Cactus is up 129% to #8 over the period…

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

Being currently in France, I naturally get exposed a little more to the intermediary sales ranking published by local weekly Auto Plus. This time we can have a look at the best-selling carmakers and models over the first 9 days of July when the French market is up a very solid 9% year-on-year. Although defunct of any real meaning, these rankings nevertheless offer precious insights into a few carmakers’ various sales policies. Renault for example always registers the majority of its sales at the very end of every month – a clear indication of its heavy reliance on artificial channels such as demo sales and self-registrations – and therefore appears in a very uncharacteristic third place over the period, placing just one nameplate, the Clio, inside the Top 10.

…while the Citroen C3 is #1…

In contrast, very weak for the past year or so at home, Citroen starts July all guns blazing with volumes up 21% to  distance Renault by over 2.000 units, deserving of a 2nd place overall behind only Peugeot, itself trailing the market at +6%. Citroen even places the C3 in pole position over the period thanks to registrations up 14% year-on-year, the C3 Aircross at #7 – by far the most popular new launch on the country – and the C4 Cactus, whose 2nd generation has just replaced the C4 hatch, up 129% to #8 overall. Peugeot manages to place 3 nameplates in the Top 4: the 3008 (#2), 208 (#3) and 308 (#4).

…and the Citroen C3 Aircross #7.

Fiat shoots up 160% year-on-year to a fantastic 4th place just 82 sales below Renault (!) and has the 500 (+86%) at #10 but 60% of the Italian carmaker’s deliveries so far in July are to rental companies. Toyota (+24%) whose Yaris (+40%) is the best-selling foreigner over the period at #5 and Nissan (+23%) also shine while Kia breaks into the Top 10 whereas it only ranks 14th year-to-date. Meanwhile, Volkswagen (-36%) implodes and doesn’t place any nameplate in the Top 10 where the Polo ranked #4 exactly a year ago. Dacia also starts the month slowly at #9 vs. #4 so far in 2018 but will catch up for lost time over the next couple of weeks.

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Previous month: France June 2018: Renault, Dacia, Fiat lift market to 3rd largest monthly volume in history

One year ago: France 1-17 July 2017: Peugeot 3008 in pole position

Full 1-9 July 2018 Top 10 brands and models below.