After a 5.46% increase in September 2022, sales of new passenger cars continued to rebound in October 2022, posting +5.45% compared to the same month of 2021. In absolute value, this represents 124,981 new passenger vehicles registered, compared to 118,519 a year ago. However, there is a decline of 33.9% compared to 2019, the pre-Covid reference year. Another bad figure: since the start of 2022, 600,000 cars are “missing” compared to 2021, over the same first 10 months.
Despite this third consecutive month in the green, this is not enough for the market to get out of the red zone where it is bogged down this year: the fall amounts to 10.3% since January 2022.
Although “the long fall of the market […] finally get over“, this does not hide the fact that “however, volumes remain at historically low levels“, said Julien Billon, managing director of AAA Data, provider of vehicle sales data on the French market. Unfortunately, “inflation and shortages are still there, customers are still waiting for the transition to electric and they are probably not ready to follow the increase in car prices“, adds the interested party.
The plug-in hybrid disappoints once again
If the registrations of non-rechargeable hybrid vehicles, or full hybrid in English, are holding up, this is not the case for plug-in hybrids or PHEVs, whose market share has been at 8.1% since January 2022. The latter should in effect losing their tax aid with the future Euro 6th standard.
In October, 11,109 plug-in hybrid cars were registered, a decrease of 4% compared to October 2021 (11,528 PV).
Peugeot and Citroën as boss
Stellantis can savor this moment. Indeed, the group occupies the first three places of the top 10 of plug-in hybrid vehicles with the Peugeot 3008 (981 VP; 9% PDM) in number one and its runner-up, the Citroën C5 Aircross (848 VP; 8% PDM). Third place goes to the Peugeot 308 (760 PV; 7% market share). The Stellantis group places four vehicles in this top 10, in particular the DS7 Crossback (6th; 402 PV; 4% PDM).
The outsider is Korean, the Hyundai Tucson (520 VP; 5% PDM) occupying 4th place. The Mercedes GLA, one of Peugeot’s main competitors, slipped to 5th place (485 VP; 4% PDM).
This ranking of the top 10 is quite eclectic since, in addition to Hyundai and Mercedes, the Kia Sportage (7th; 367 VP; 3% PDM), the Volvo XC40 (8th; 310 VP; 3% PDM), the Audi Q3 ( 9th; 310 VP; 3% PDM) and Lynk&Co 01 (10th; 270 VP; 2% PDM).
Note the arrivals of the Lexus NX (31st; 93 VP; 1% PDM), the Mazda CX-60 (35th; 77 VP; 1% PDM) and the Peugeot 408 coupé SUV (41st; 66 VP; 1% PDM). Be careful though, because these models could be intended only for dealerships as demonstration vehicles.