The French automobile market fell into the red last August, with registrations down 22.4%, then 11.79% in September in a market that had been stagnant since January 2024 at -0.52%. Growth remains at 1% since January. In detail and by category, we see that it is light utility vehicles, up 5.29% over the first nine months, which largely offset the decline in passenger cars (– 1.76%). More precisely, sales of passenger cars and utility vehicles to professionals and businesses suffer less than those to individuals, but still accelerate their decline to -15.45% in September and -2.63% since the start of 2024.
The business market is therefore also suffering, due to the slowdown in sales of private vehicles for professional use, company cars, which stands at -6.90% since the start of 2024. And the last quarter of the year will probably not succeed in reversing this downward trend, the already gloomy business climate being shaken up by political instability since last July.
Despite everything, in the background, a trend continues: the “greening” of corporate fleets. Indeed, if we look at the distribution of registrations by type of engine since the start of the year, private and utility electric vehicles showed slight growth of 2.48%, or a market share of 11.17%, certainly lower than that of sales to individuals (17.1%), but the latter fell by 33 .3% for the month of August 2024 alone and 6% in September.
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On the other hand, the fall is inexorably increasing for plug-in hybrid engines (PHEV) in businesses, with – 36.4% in September and – 10.5% since the start of 2024 (passenger cars and light utility vehicles). The PHEV market share is now only 8% in business. The scheduled end in 2025 of the partial or total exemption from the tax on CO emissions2 was fatal to him.
The fall after the runaway
More electric vehicles were even registered in companies last September (6,751 units, + 13.41%) than PHEVs (5,083 units), while companies are traditionally more reluctant to use electric vehicles than to plug-in hybrid. However, the legislator no longer supports the purchase of this type of vehicle by companies: the electric bonus disappeared in February. The finance bill for 2025 could nevertheless include incentives for the purchase of this type of vehicle by companies.
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