French market fell 10% in October; mood pessimistic amid COVID lockdown

The CCFA French automakers lobby group expects a tough end of the year after new-car sales fell 9.5 percent in October.

Registrations dropped to 171,049 from 188,987 in October 2019, the CCFA said in a statement.

October had one less selling day than the same month last year. Adjusted for comparable figures, the monthly decline would have been 5.4 percent.

The CCFA warned that the rest of the year will be difficult after dealerships were ordered to close for walk-in sales during the government's latest national lockdown to reduce the spread of coronavirus.

The decision by President Emmanuel Macron to shut dealerships to walk-in customers until Dec. 1 and the impact of the government's reducing incentives for electrified cars and penalizing high CO2 emission models means "we are in for a difficult year end," CCFA spokesman Francois Roudier told La Tribune newspaper.

New-car sales during October returned to traditional levels for the month, Roudier told the paper. "Business was healthier than a typical year end, with higher demand by private customers and smaller rebates," he said.

Order level was very good in early October but deteriorated before the end of the month, Roudier said.

Registrations in the first 10 months are down 27 percent to 1.24 million vehicles.

Opel, Audi, Kia and Peugeot were among major brands that increased sales in October.

Opel's registrations jumped by 20 percent, Audi gained 18 percent, Kia's sales were up 9.9 percent and Peugeot brand's volume rose 2.1 percent.

Brands that had a bad October included Jaguar, whose registrations plunged 70 percent and Toyota brand, which was down 33 percent.

Other poorly performing brands were BMW and Seat, which both saw sales drop 29 percent.

Ford, Fiat and DS registrations all fell 27 percent. Also with big declines were Jeep, down 24 percent and Dacia, down 23 percent

Citroen sales fell 12 percent and VW brand was down 11 percent.

Hyundai brand sales declined by 9.7 percent and Nissan's registrations dropped by 8.7 percent. Renault brand was down 4.7 percent

The Peugeot 208 was the best-selling car in France in October, followed by the Renault Clio and the Peugeot 2008.

French buyers are increasingly switching to electrified vehicles.

In the first 10 months, hybrid vehicles made up 13.4 percent of the market compared with 5.4 percent in 2019. Of that figure, 3.8 percent were plug-in hybrids, compared with 0.8 percent through October 2019.

Full-electric vehicles made up 6 percent of the market, compared with 1.9 percent in the same period last year.

Diesel share through October was 31.1 percent, down from 34 percent in the first 10 months of 2019, while gasoline models made up 48.4 percent, down from 58.3 percent.