France Sales : Jan-Mar 2020

No one will be surprised with a sales slump. France has been in a lockdown situation since the 17th of March so a normal sales performance was impossible. That is exactly what has transpired. Total registrations were -72% in March and year to date (YTD) -34%. No wonder car plants are being idled. No brand escaped but some managed to do better than others.

Porsche somehow managed to minimise the damage to a slim -15% and is +51% YTD. Rolls Royce sold two cars in March, which was two more than last year and is up 350% YTD. With such small numbers the impossible was achieved. MINI was only down an impressive -50% for the month but at the other end of the spectrum Opel was -90% and Jaguar -89%.

So how did that affect market share? Comparing the whole of 2019 with the first three months of 2020 among the major players, the chart below shows who took a larger share of the pie (green) and who is on a diet (yellow). For example, Peugeot increased its take from 17.1% for the 2019 year, up to 20% YTD 2020.

The big three French brands have all managed to increase market share, Peugeot particularly. They achieved their best combined share of the French market since 2011. DS sales are relatively good too, up 34% YTD and share of 2% for 2020 so far.

Of the foreign brands Toyota is only -10% YTD and has improved its share by over 30% as a result. Nissan, Kia and Hyundai are also doing OK, in a difficult time.

	19	20	Make	Sales J-M	2020	2019	Diff
	2	1	Peugeot	72,953	20.0%	17.1%	16.7%
	1	2	Renault	67,208	18.4%	18.4%	0.2%
	3	3	Citroën	39,759	10.9%	10.6%	2.7%
	6	4	Toyota	21,886	6.0%	4.6%	30.6%
	4	5	VW	19,662	5.4%	6.7%	-19.9%
	5	6	Dacia	16,578	4.5%	6.3%	-27.6%
	8	7	Opel	11,313	3.1%	3.0%	2.7%
	7	8	Ford	10,722	2.9%	3.6%	-17.4%
	12	9	BMW	10,219	2.8%	2.7%	5.6%
	11	10	Audi	9,056	2.5%	2.6%	-4.4%
	10	12	Mercedes	8,994	2.5%	3.2%	-22.2%
	14	11	Nissan	8,855	2.4%	1.9%	27.1%
	13	15	Kia	8,582	2.4%	2.0%	15.7%
	9	13	Fiat	8,541	2.3%	3.2%	-27.6%
	15	14	Hyundai	8,294	2.3%	1.8%	26.0%
	19	16	DS	7,305	2.0%	1.2%	65.2%
	17	18	Škoda	5,843	1.6%	1.6%	-2.8%
	16	17	Seat	5,828	1.6%	1.7%	-4.7%
	20	19	MINI	4,329	1.2%	1.2%	-3.2%

Data source: CCFA.

Audi Global Production (By Model) : 2018-19

Audi production has reduced three years in a row now. The numbers aren't large at least but it shows how competitive the premium car arena has become. it was only a 1% drop in 2018 but moved up to -4% a year later. VW stated WLTP affected sales in the first part of the year.

Yellow highlights SUVs and they constitute 42.6% of total production, up 12%. The fact that Audi is so strong in China may account as to why passenger cars are still taking the majority of the total.

16	17	18	19	Models	2019	%	+/-		2018	%	+/-
2	1	1	1	A4	323,387	18.0%	-6%		344,623	18.5%	6%
3	3	3	2	Q5	286,365	16.0%	-4%		298,645	16.0%	3%
1	2	2	3	A3	240,795	13.4%	-21%		304,903	16.4%	-3%
4	4	4	4	A6	232,569	13.0%	-9%		254,705	13.7%	-2%
5	5	5	5	Q3	195,566	10.9%	17%		167,707	9.0%	-18%
12	8	8	6	Q2	130,225	7.3%	20%		108,386	5.8%	6%
8	6	6	7	A5	93,077	5.2%	-17%		111,544	6.0%	-7%
6	9	9	8	A1	82,287	4.6%	2%		80,387	4.3%	-16%
7	7	7	9	Q7	63,633	3.5%	-42%		110,593	5.9%	4%
-	14	11	10	Q8	44,727	2.5%	100%		22,414	1.2%	n/a
-	-	14	11	e-tron	43,376	2.4%	n/a		2,425	0.1%	n/a
11	12	10	12	A8	23,826	1.3%	-3%		24,541	1.3%	55%
10	11	12	13	A7	17,068	1.0%	-15%		20,058	1.1%	18%
9	10	13	14	TT	14,999	0.8%	24%		12,118	0.6%	-45%
13	13	15	15	R8	2,121	0.1%	20%		1,764	0.1%	-45%
				Total	1,864,813		-4%		1,875,353		-1%
				SUV	42.6%		12%		38.1%		1%

Regional sales: I'm not sure why production has exceeded deliveries for two years now. Sometimes that happens as one can get ahead of the other before a realignment is implemented. The deliveries below also include Lamborghini, but that has no real impact on the numbers.

Region	2019	%	+/-		2018	%	+/-
Europe/Other	806,490	43.5%	3%		781,740	43.0%	-14%
Asia Pacific	758,286	40.9%	2%		739,926	40.7%	10%
Nth America	272,538	14.7%	-1%		276,336	15.2%	-1%
Sth America	16,686	0.9%	-8%		18,180	1.0%	-20%
Total	1,854,000		2%		1,818,000		-3%

Data source: VW.