France March 2025: Renault Symbioz cracks Top 10, Tesla off -36.8%

First Top 10 finish for the Renault Symbioz at home.

It’s a mediocre month for the French new car market in March at -14.5% year-on-year to just 153,842 units. The Q1 2025 volume is therefore off -7.8% to 410,085. This drop is partly due to pulled forward sales in February in anticipation of the reduction of “bonus” incentives and the increase of “malus” penalties linked to CO2 emissions. Yet the YTD fall shows a particularly depressed market. Petrol sales implode -44.2% to 32,867, diesel is off -47.9% to 6,463 and PHEVs skid -49.1% to 8,289 but HEVs soar 41.6% to 70,676. Meanwhile BEVs are down -14.7% to 29,261 and 19% share vs. 19.1% a year ago. Over Q1, petrol is down -34.1% to 97,951 and 23.9% share, diesel is off -45.6% to 18,126 and 4.4% share, HEVs are up 47.5% to 184,267 and 44.9% share, PHEVs fall -49.2% to 19,592 and 4.8% share and BEVs are down -7.1% to 74,519 and 18.2% share.

In the brands ranking, Renault (-0.7%) manages to stabilise and sports a superb 19.1% share, the carmaker’s highest since June 2022. Peugeot (-6.7%) establishes itself at 15.4% share while Dacia (-3.7%) is at 8.6% in third place. Citroen (-20.1%) can’t stop its freefall and is down to just 7% share, its lowest so far this year. Volkswagen (-3.5%) falls slower than the market unlike Toyota (-16%) and BMW (-36.6%) below. Skoda (+6.1%) is the only manufacturer in the Top 14 that sees year-on-year growth, and climbs to a record 8th place, also reached last October and November. BYD (+219.9%), Alpine (+111.3%), Alfa Romeo (+98.2%), MG (+81.65) and Cupra (+43.2%) also stand out below. Tesla is off -36.8% for the month and -41.1% year-to-date.

Over in the models charts, the Renault Clio (-6.2%) dominates at 6.2% share vs. 5.7% over Q1, followed by the Peugeot 208 (-18.4%) and Dacia Sandero (-26.1%) both falling even faster than the market. The Peugeot 2008 (+2.3%) holds off its archenemy the Renault Captur (-15%) and ranks #4. Leader in January, the Citroen C3 IV falls to #6 and now ranks #3 year-to-date while the Dacia Duster III stays put at #7. The breakout performance of the month is delivered by the Renault Symbioz, up five ranks on last month to break into the Top 10 for the first time at #8. Below, the Peugeot 3008 III (+446.7%) maintains itself inside the Top 10 while the new Renault 5 manages a fifth consecutive month among the country’s ten most popular cars at #10. The Dacia Bigster lands directly at #34.

Previous month: France February 2025: Renault (+20.4%) reclaims control in stable market

One year ago: France March 2024: Market slightly down, Peugeot e-208 outsells Tesla Model Y over Q1

Full March 2025 Top 57 All brands and Top 50 models below.