February 2023 registrations: electric continues to boost the market

“The current trend is good, vehicles ordered for several months by customers are arriving on the market”welcomes Julien Billon, managing director of AAA DATA, which provides the monthly figures for registrations in the French automobile market.

After +8.8% last January, February was a festive month with growth of 9.4%, or 126,237 new car registrations. By way of comparison, in February 2022, they were only 115,383. However, we remain far from the level of February 2019, the reference year before the Covid, with 172,438 registrations.

In the first two months of 2023, 238,176 new car registrations were recorded, up 9.11% compared to the same period of the previous financial year. Would the market take off again on the hats of wheels? According to Julien Billon, this increase is linked to orders made in 2022 and finally delivered to customers. He is also worried about a “level of orders down (-9% in January 2023). If this development continues, the stock awaiting roadworthiness will be depleted during the first half of 2023, and the second half will be in a difficult state”.

Skoda, Nissan and Dacia, the big winners

This growth particularly benefits three brands. Thus, the largest is attributed to Skoda (+38% with 2,935 registrations). The ghost Nissan follows (+35.4%, 2,944 registrations) which detailed its new electric strategy, which we will have the opportunity to talk about in a separate article. On the third step finally sits Dacia which continues to be at the forefront (+33.9%, 11,900 registrations) and has the luxury of being ahead of Citroën (-23.7%, 9,136 registrations).

As far as French manufacturers are concerned, and more particularly the Stellantis group, our colleagues from the Automotive Journal wonder about Peugeot and Citroën, which seem to have carried out “mass registration in the last two days of February”. For the latter, if this “strategy turned out to be voluntary”it would jeopardize the 9.4% growth observed in February.

Electric boosts the market, LPG and E85 in ambush

In terms of energy, petrol still occupies first place with 47,125 registrations (market share of 37.9%), while diesel continues its long descent into hell with 14,723 registrations (-27.4%, market share 11.7%). But it is the electric that takes the lead with 19,595 registrations (+46%, 15.3% market share). Hybrid vehicles (full hybrid in English) dominate the electrification market with 29,143 registrations (+25%, market share of 23%), while plug-in hybrids (PHEV) stagnate at 10,493 registrations (+8%, market share of 8 .1%).

A word on so-called renewable energies, including LPG and Superethanol E85, which together represent 5.9% of the market share.

Here are the top 20 global registrations:

SALES OF NEW PASSENGER CARS IN FEBRUARY 2023

This top 20 registrations for February 2023 confirms the supremacy of the Peugeot 208, which combines all engines, including electric. In fact, we do not really know if the Dacia Spring (8th) is the first electric vehicle or the second behind the Peugeot 208. Still, the Romanian caps the Tesla Model Y (12th) on the post. The Renault Austral is also in great shape since from 17th place in January, it climbs to 13th place.