Sales of new cars in France are down 16.3% in the first half of 2022 with 772,046 registrations. What are the best-selling models since the beginning of the year? According to NGC-Data® data, the Peugeot 208 is in the lead, ahead of the Renault Clio and the Dacia Sandero.
Like a sense of déjà vu. The Peugeot 208 is again at the top of new car sales in France in the first half of 2022, according to data from NGC-Data®. It is still ahead of the Renault Clio, as well as the Dacia Sandero. Since the start of the year, 772,046 new car registrations have been recorded, a decrease of 16.3% compared to the same period in 2021. The argus offers you a list of the best sales over the first six months of the year.
>> The Top 30 best-selling models in 2022 <<
The 208 in front of the Clio and the Sandero
The Peugeot 208 continues to ride on success. She occupies first place in the overall sales ranking with 46,487 registered registrations. This is almost 12,000 more than its great rival, the Renault Clio (34,867 copies), whose delivery times have been greatly extended. The diamond-shaped city car is closely followed by the Dacia Sandero (31,644 copies), which arrived on the podium in 2021 thanks to the success of the third generation. A position which is explained above all by the attractive price of the small Romanian, offered from €10,990. In addition, sales of the Peugeot 2008 are crumbling after the full box achieved by the restyled version in 2020 and 2021. It is now in sixth position with 24,989 units registered, a drop of 38.5% compared to 2021. Driven by the success of its non-rechargeable hybrid version, which represents 66% of its sales, its great rival, the Renault Captur, is just ahead with 26,856 units recorded. There is still one semester left in 2008 to overtake it and retain its position as the No. 1 SUV in France. Finally at Citroën, with 29,142 registrations, the C3 secures a fourth position, while its adventurer version Aircross comes twelfth with 12,478 units sold. According to the firm Inovev, the manufacturer with rafters could fall behind Dacia in terms of sales to individuals this year or the next.
Models in the positive
Of the 30 best-selling models, only five can claim to see their number of registrations increase in the first half of 2022. This is the case of the Peugeot 308, which is in seventh place with a total of 23,158 sales, i.e. an increase of 68.8%. Recall that the production of the second generation of the lioness was prematurely stopped in the spring of 2021, due to a lack of semiconductors, while the launch of the new version was delayed for the same reason. But this figure is far from the meteoric rise of the Dacia Spring (+ 691.3%) or the Renault Arkana (+344.7%). No wonder, given that these models were launched on the market during the first half of 2021. We can also note the growth of the Fiat 500 (+ 6.2%), boosted by demand for the electric city car, and the Ford Puma (+15.1%). At a time when fuel prices blithely exceed 2 €/l, the American SUV is very attractive with its range of E85-compatible FlexFuel engines.
The models who lost
Compared to the first half of 2021, some models show a drop in sales of 30 to 40%. For the majority, we observe a cannibalization phenomenon » emphasizes Jean-Michel Prillieux, market director at Inovev. For the Tesla Model 3 (27e), whose registrations fell by more than 40%, the Model Y won market share over the sedan. In addition, the production of American electrics is done in cycles, as Jamel Taganza, vice-president of Inovev, points out. Once the vehicles intended for export have been sold, we have to wait for the next deliveries, which partly explains this drop. It should also be noted that the Tesla factory in Shanghai was closed for almost a month because of the zero Covid policy implemented in China. The phenomenon of cannibalization is also observed at Toyota, with the Yaris which saw its sales decrease due to the arrival of the Yaris Cross. Ditto for the Volkswagen Polo, which has to face for example the Taigo, and for the Ford Fiesta, which is upstaged by the Puma. Jamel Taganza and Jean-Michel Prillieux come together to say that, in general, models that lose attractiveness are victims of the SUV fashion. Finally, faced with falling sales and supply problems, many manufacturers are giving priority to manufacturing vehicles with high added value.
