Although they have not returned to pre-crisis levels, indicators of vehicle sales to companies are starting to rise again. Over the first nine months of the year, the French automobile market regained strength with growth of 14.2%; i.e. more than 1.564 million registrations. But this increase is undoubtedly due to investments made by companies to renew their vehicle fleet.
According to the Arval Mobility Observatory (AMO), the growth in registrations made by fleets exceeded 16.7% at the end of September, with an increase of 21% for passenger cars and 9.3% for utility vehicles. There are 596,000 new vehicles supporting business activity since the start of the year.
However, these new registrations create the illusion of a return to normal. Because they come, in fact, from orders registered in 2022 and whose delivery has not been possible since then, due to the shortage of electronic components or a faulty logistics chain among automobile manufacturers.
According to analyzes by the PFA (Automobile Platform), which brings together the various components of the automobile industry in France, although vehicle registrations are on the rise, orders for new cars are down 7.6% in August and 12.2% in September. For utility vehicles, orders are even down sharply with – 37% in September.
Orders down
“We have noted, in companies, a catch-up in deliveries of vehicles ordered since 2021. As a result, car registrations with fleets have become, since the start of the year, more dynamic than those made with households,” notes Régis Maséra, director of the Arval Mobility Observatory.
But at the same time, notes the AMO, “ corporate fleets are experiencing inflationary sequence never observed before. In terms of average cost price per kilometer for the use of a company vehicle, the increase recorded is 12% this year. And for the total cost of owning a vehicle under contract, the increase oscillates between 20 and 30%, due to cost items such as insurance, energy or maintenance which show significant increases.
Added to this increase in management costs are unexpected increases. As Jackie Hodapp, key account manager at Fatec, a Marseille-based company which manages a fleet of 130,000 vehicles for its customers, points out: “The models ordered last year are now massively delivered to our customers. And many companies find themselves, for example, with 5% too many vehicles in their fleet. »
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