Sales of new cars in France fell by 24% last month.
The French car market is definitely looking gloomy. In August, sales of new cars in France fell by 24% according to the AAA Data consultancy, which released the data on Sunday. In concrete terms, almost 86,000 vehicles were sold compared to 113,600 in August 2023. This is a long, long way from pre-Covid performance: in August 2019, the French bought 129,300 new vehicles.
The explanation for this decline? « The uncertain political context is impacting the economic sphere, with households already facing prices and interest rates remaining high, and companies adopting a wait-and-see stance regarding their investments. »underlines Marie-Laure Nivot, analyst at AAA Data. The decline is even more marked (-32%) among companies that acquire cars for their employees than among individuals (-22%).
In the meantime, this is the fourth consecutive month that sales have plummeted. As a result, despite a start to the year marked by a recovery, over the first eight months of the year, the market is not even balanced (-0.48%). Not all brands are affected by the market’s gloom with the same intensity. In August, the leader Stellantis (Peugeot, Citroën, Fiat), saw its registrations plummet by 31.7% while its major French competitor, Renault, suffered a 22.5% drop in sales. Conversely, the German Volkswagen recorded a 6% increase in its registrations.
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