French Sales in August Reflect Summer Doldrums

PARIS – Light-vehicle sales always are slow in August, the month when much of France is on vacation, and this year they were slower than year-ago.

Consumers registered 115,349 LVs during the month, a 12.3% drop from like-2011, according to data from CCFA, the French auto makers’ organization.

Both PSA Peugeot Citroen, down 10.5%, and Renault, down 22.0%, lost market share in August and together took just 54.4% of their home market, reducing their year-to-date share to 55.5%.

However, Renault had some good news, thanks to growth by its entry-level Dacia brand. Dacia sales were off 1.9% for the year, but at the current rate of gain, plus 17.1% in August, the brand should finish 2012 in the plus column.

In the B-segment, where deliveries fell 13.2% overall, sales of the Sandero cross/utility vehicle jumped 57.1% in August compared with year-ago. Dacia sold thousands of Sanderos powered by liquefied petroleum gas in first-quarter 2011, about the time the government incentive that made those cars a bargain ended.

Renault-brand deliveries slid 28.9% in August. The auto maker hasn’t had a major launch for several years, but the new Clio, in the popular B-segment, comes to market this autumn.

“The level of the market is my principal worry,” says Bernard Cambier, sales director for Renault in France, “with no particular sign of improvement over the summer months.

“Traditionally the month of August is not favorable for the Renault brand, but, that said, Renault’s results this year did not reach our expectations. However, Dacia did well in a market in strong decline and confirmed its place as the fifth-largest brand in France.”

The Peugeot brand slipped just 2.7% in August thanks to the recent launch of the B-segment 208, but Citroen sales were off 19.2%. Year-to-date, PSA was down 18.3% and Renault-Dacia tumbled 14.7% in a market off 12.4%.

Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai-Kia, BMW and Toyota saw deliveriesincrease in August. Ford sales plummeted 36.9%, General Motors was down 14.8%, Fiat group slid 24.2% and Nissan was off 5.7%.

Not counting light-commercial vehicles, car sales totaled 96,115 units in the month, the first time since June 1997 that fewer than 100,000 were registered, according to the Xerfi research group. Xerfi says both fleet and retail sales are suffering because of increasing joblessness.

The success of Hyundai-Kia, Dacia and German brands Audi, Mercedes and BMW describes a market in which both low-cost and premium vehicles are doing well while the middle segment has collapsed.

The CCFA counts on the September Paris auto show to rejuvenate the market in the fourth quarter, but it will take some robust growth to go from sales down 13.4% through August to the industry group’s prediction of a 10% decline for the year.

Analysts IHS Automotive projects an 11% sales decline for France this year and a 5% slide in 2013 as the European economy remains in the doldrums.