The electric car is already in trouble in France (and Tesla is badly affected)

The electric car market is not in Olympic form in France. The statistics for June do not make up for a lackluster start to the year. New vehicle registrations are even down 11% compared to the previous month, according to data published by AAA Datas on July 1. If the players in the automobile market were hoping for a rebound before the summer, they will have to wait a little longer. Finally, if the new political situation does not further dampen the outlook.

Social leasing, with its electric cars costing between €40 and €150 per month for low-income households, continues to make people believe that everything is fine. Unfortunately, apart from this largely subsidized government measure, manufacturers seem to be drinking in the cold, including Tesla which saw its registrations halved compared to June 2023.

Renault Mégane e-tech tops French registrations

After a long domination of the Peugeot e-208 since the start of the year, it is the turn of the Renault Mégane e-tech to take the lead in the ranking of electric cars for the month of June. With 3,257 examples registered last month, this is even a record for the brand on the French market.

This renewed interest in the Renault model is probably driven by the social leasing at the beginning of the year. The model was offered from €150/month. The price reduction in January, with a price starting at €34,000, may also have borne fruit.

Tesla on the podium, but with low volumes

Quarter-ends are usually busy at Tesla for the Model Y and Model 3. However, this month of June 2024 is nothing really exceptional for the brand, compared to the year 2023:

The Model Y – the international sales star – sees its registration volumes drop by 50% compared to June last year, and the Model 3 even reaches 54% less compared to 2023. Finally, these figures are still much better than in May, during which the Model Y had only reached 1,419 registrations and the Model 3 only 763.

The Model 3 sedan, despite an attractive price, suffers from the absence of State bonuses on the French market. The possible increase in its price, due to increased European customs duties for models produced in China, could well worsen the situation of this model, although appreciated by customers.

Stellantis consoles itself by looking at the accumulation of the first 6 months

For once, Stellantis has to give up its place on the podium of registrations for the month of June. The Peugeot e-208 is only 5th, the Fiat 500e 6th and the Citroën ë-C4 in 9th place in the ranking. However, the group consoles itself by maintaining a good lead on the cumulative over the first 6 months of the year, particularly for the e-208 which maintains its first place with 17,341 units already delivered.

The Stellantis group has recovered the largest share of electric cars in social leasing. Deliveries continue to customers. In order not to see sales collapse at the end of these, the group continues to offer fairly attractive leasing offers. Particularly with the Fiat 500 e starting at €99/month.

The rest of the ranking for June 2024

Without subsidies, can the EV market still survive?

If we remove the registrations linked to social leasing, subsidized to the tune of €13,000 by the government, there is not much left for other models and other buyers. This measure has literally cannibalized sales in this first half of 2024.

A fairly similar observation is evident when we look at the models which lost the ecological bonus in 2024. Electric cars produced in China are generally losing momentum, despite the discounts granted by the manufacturers concerned. Even if we can observe some ups and downs for the MG4 in June, this is probably only an anticipation of the increase in customs duties in July. The rest of the Chinese manufacturers are paying particularly dearly for France’s protectionist policy.

The political climate has also created a lot of wait-and-see attitude in terms of purchasing decisions. The result of the European elections and those to come for the legislative elections could well slow down the market even more. For the moment, electric cars are maintaining their market share at the same level, but a government that cuts subsidies for electric vehicles would undoubtedly halt a large part of sales.

It is also possible that customers will be waiting for the big new models of the year: Renault Scénic e-tech, Peugeot e-3008/e-5008, Citroën e-C3 or Renault 5. The R5 will only have an impact on the year 2025, but the other models could already revive the registration rankings a little at the start of the 2024 school year.

If the government wanted to favor European manufacturers, it has above all succeeded in breaking the dynamics of the electric car market. A trend to follow in our Watt Else newsletter:

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