France January 2024: Dacia smashes share record, ends month just 914 sales below Renault

First French Top 10 finish for the Dacia Jogger.

16/02 update: Now with Top 302 All models ranking.

The French new car market is up 9.2% year-on-year in January to 122,285 units. Petrol sales edge down -3.7% to 41,753 and 34.1% share vs. 38.7% a year ago, diesel is off -23.3% to 9,623 and 7.9% share vs. 11.2% in January 2023, HEVs shoot up 29.8% to 33,786 and 27.6% share vs. 23.2%, PHEVs are up 2.4% to 10,545 and 8.6% share vs. 9.2% and BEVs are up 36.6% to 20,017 and 16.4% share vs. 13.1% a year ago.

Peugeot (+15.4%) reclaims the lead of the brands charts for the first time since March 2023 with a splendid 16.7% share. Its advantage over archenemy Renault (-13.2%) widens to almost 5,600 sales for the month. Meanwhile Dacia (+20.7%) shatters its market share record at 11.4% vs. a previous best of 10.5% hit in April 2023. This means Renault only sells 914 units more than Dacia this month, the lowest ever margin in French history. Will a time come when Dacia actually outsells Renault in France? Toyota (+19.2%) is up one spot on December to #4 with 8.5% share, outselling Citroen (+20.7%) which rallies back up to #5 after a horrendous month of December (#10). Volkswagen (-30.6%) pays for its particularly good result last month and falls to #6. The rest of the Top 10 all outpace the market, with Opel at +38.1%, Fiat at +36.2%, BMW at +34.8% and Kia at +10.6%. Tesla is up 320.8% to #12.

Model-wise, the Peugeot 208 (+41.1%) scores its first monthly win since last September with a very strong 6.8% share, its best since the 7% of October 2022. The Dacia Sandero (+5.5%) stays in 2nd place with 5.7% share while last year’s winner the Renault Clio (+17.4%) falls to #3. The Citroen C3 (+61.2%) scores the largest gain in the Top 8 to return to the 4th place it held over the Full Year 2023. The Peugeot 2008 (-1.4%) is shy but back up to #5 ahead of the Peugeot 308 (+24.2%) and Toyota Yaris (+44.7%), both outstanding. The Toyota Yaris Cross (+13.4%) is back up four spots on December to #8. The Dacia Jogger (+74.9%) breaks into the French Top 10 for the very first time, with its previous best being #12 hit in June 2022, April 2023 and September 2023. The Dacia Duster (+57.3%) rounds out the Top 10.

Previous post: France Full Year 2023: Renault and Clio back in charge, Tesla up to #7

One year ago: France January 2023: Dacia breaks share record, Sandero repeats at #1 in market up 8.9%

Full January 2024 Top 54 All brands and Top 302 All models below.