France May 2023: Renault and Clio in charge again, Arkana up to record #6

The Renault Arkana breaks its ranking record in France.

20/06 update: Now with Top 310 All models ranking.

The French new car market advances +14.8% year-on-year in May to 145,538 sales, leading to a year-to-date tally up 16.3% or almost 100,000 units to 698,931. Petrol sales rise 18.4% to 54,273 and are up 19% year-to-date to 269,714 and 38.6% share vs. 37.7% over the same period in 2022. Diesel registrations sink -31.8% to 15,198 for the month and -23.5%VYTD to 76,226 and 10.9% share vs. 16.6% a year ago. HEV are up 22% to 34,382 and up 24.2% YTD to 159,001 and 22.7% share vs. 21.3% in 2022. PHEV gain 12.1% to 12,632 and are up 18% YTD to 60,022 and 8.6% share vs. 8.5%. Finally BEV sales are up     and up 46.6% YTD to 104,734 and 15% share vs. 11.9% over the first 5 months of 2022.

The MG 4 is up to #26.

Renault (+13.7%) takes a commanding lead in the brands charts with 18% share vs. 15.9% YTD and snaps the #1 YTD spot off Peugeot (+7.6%) in the process. Dacia (+27.8%) continues to evolve markedly above its year-ago level and consolidates its third place YTD. Volkswagen (+34.5%) also soars and edges past Citroen (+13.6%) to rank #4. It’s the second time this year (after January) that Volkswagen outsells Citroen. Meanwhile Toyota (+4.2%) ranks #6 as it does YTD ahead of BMW (+9.4%) and Ford (-1.8%) also underperforming. Tesla is up a surreal 2539.5% year-on-year now that it has stopped backloading its sales towards end-of-quarters. Kia (+8.9%) rounds out the Top 10. Below, MG (+410.1%), Alfa Romeo (+153.6%), Land Rover (+151%), Volvo (+103.6%) and Cupra (+82.7%) stand out while BYD climbs to #37.

Over in the models lane, the Renault Clio (+37.8%) repeats in pole position but is still dominated by the Peugeot 208 (+2.6%) in the YTD order. The Dacia Sandero (+20.2%) remains in third place above the Peugeot 2008 (+36.8%). The Citroen C3 (+41.4%) shows great health at #5 while the Renault Arkana (+19.6%) breaks its ranking record at #6, eclipsing its previous best of #7 hit in September 2021 and May 2022. It distances the Renault Captur (+8.2%) and Peugeot 308 (-9.6%) just as the Fiat 500 (+10.7%) returns inside the Top 10 at #9. It’s a second ever Top 10 finish for the new Renault Austral at #10. Notice also the Tesla Model Y up 6672.5% year-on-year to #13 and #10 year-to-date, the Dacia Jogger up 78.8% to #16 and the Nissan Qashqai up 97%. Finally the MG 4 breaks all its records to end the month at a splendid #26.

Previous month: France April 2023: Dacia breaks share record, Renault Austral in Top 10

One year ago: France May 2022: Dacia on the podium for the first time, Citroen hits lowest share in over 100 years

Full May 2023 Top 52 All brands and Top 310 All models below.