France September 2026: Tesla Model Y, Renault 5, Twingo lift EV sales up 108.1% to record 41.7% share

The Twingo E-Tech is shaping up to be another neo-retro smash hit for Renault.

9/10 update: now with Top 40 brands ranking

It’s another satisfying month for new car sales in France, now up 11.6% year-on-year in September to 156,629 units. This way, the year-to-date tally is up 4.1% to 1,234,952. Enthusiasm needs to be contained however as 2025 was the worst in 50 years in France. Hurt by extravagant prices, petrol sales sink -39.2% to 16,389 and 10.5% share vs. 19.2% a year ago and 25.9% in September 2024. Diesel sales implode -61.8% to just 2,412 and 1.5% share vs. 4.5% last year and 5.8% in 2024, HEVs drop -7.8% to 57,248 and 36.6% share vs. 44.2% a year ago and 38.2% in 2024 and PHEVs gain 10.8% to 10,101 and 6.5% share, unchained on September 2025 and vs. 7.3% in 2024. Finally the event of the month is once again the EV surge. New electric vehicles found 65,243 buyers in France in September, up an extravagant 108.1% year-on-year for a record 41.7% share vs. 22.3% a year ago which was a record at the time. Year-to-date EV sales are up 78.8% to 387,345 and 31.4% share vs. 18.3% at the same stage a year ago.

The Tesla Model Y is the best-selling vehicle in France for the second month running.

Looking at the brands ranking, Renault (+22.4%) posts a splendid score to 18.4% share vs. 17.2% year-to-date, helped by a wave of successful neo-retro EVs as we’ll see further down. Peugeot (+1.5%) fares much worse at #2 with just 12.2% share vs. 13.1% so far this year. Citroen (+21.2%) is also in excellent shape and reclaims the third spot overall off Dacia (-14.4%) in great difficulty. Tesla (+61.9%) is the best performer in the Top 10 and climbs two spots on July to #5 with over 9.000 sales and 5.8% share. This is a new ranking record for the American carmaker (previous best #6 in March and December 2023) but not a volume record (9,572 in December 2023) nor a share record (6.1% in November 2023). As a result Toyota (-4.6%) and Volkswagen (-10.3%) are pushed down to #6 and #7 respectively. Meanwhile BYD grows 281.9% to a record #11 also reached last June with Kia (+62.2%) and Fiat (+52.1%) also very healthy. Newcomer Jaecoo continues to progress, up to #18 with 1.6% share.

The Renault 5 sees its sales double year-on-year in September.

Over in the models charts, the Tesla Model Y (+68.9%) manages the huge feat of repeating at #1 for the month with an improved 5.2% share. It distances the Peugeot 208 (+15.8%) at 5% and the Citroen C3 (+27.1%) at 4%. The Renault Clio VI, almost one year after appearing on French roads, is still way off its expected level at #4 with 3.6% share, its best performance so far being 4% last March and having not managed better than #3 (in March, April and June). It’s a surprise as I spotted many of them in the streets during my 2.5 months stay in the country. Adding 5th generation volumes would place the Clio nameplate at a paltry #3 with 4% share. The Renault 5 (+105.9%) continues to impress in 5th place while the Dacia Sandero (+2.2%) falls to #6. The second event of the month is the record 7th place of the Renault Twingo IV with 3.2% share, only 236 sales below the 5 and shaping up to be yet another EV success for the French carmaker. The Renault Scenic V (+92.5%) lodges a third straight Top 10 finish at #10 while the new Jaecoo J5 breaks into the Top 25 at #25 (+6) and the Jaecoo 7 is up to #34 (+6).

Complete models data will be uploaded to this article when made available to us.

Previous month: France August 2026: BEVs up to record 38.3% share, Tesla Model Y overall best-seller

One year ago: France September 2025: BEVs at 22.3% share, Renault 4 (finally) into Top 50

Full September 2026 Top 40 brands and Top 50 models below.