Domestic Brands Sustain French Car-Sales Recovery

Car sales in France continued their predicted course in June with a 3.2% improvement over last year’s market bottom, to 196,257 units.

As in recent months, Renault led the market growth, with sales climbing 24.7%. PSA Peugeot Citroen was down 2.3%.

For the first half, the French market was up 2.9%, with Renault 15.3% ahead of its first-half 2013 rate and PSA improving 4.7%.

The non-French brands languished in negative territory, down 5.4% in June and 4.5% for the first half. The boost by the national automakers thus disguised, to some degree, a continuing sluggish market in the country. The French brands have new products and were coming off a particularly bad first half in 2013.

“Our performance is because of the attractiveness of our range,” says Bernard Cambier, Renault’s sales director in France, “particularly the new models, but also by the competence of our sales network.”

Renault now has a 24.8% share of the car market, and its entry brand Dacia has 5.8%. Peugeot is at 16.0% and Citroen at 12.7%.

The non-French brands doing better than prior-year after six months were Skoda, Opel, Nissan, Lexus, Lancia, Jeep and, just barely, BMW, which saw a 35.1% jump in June raise first-half deliveries to 22,271 units, 26 more than last year.