France: Plug-In Electric Car Sales Quadrupled In March 2021

Tesla Model 3 beats Peugeot e-208 and Renault ZOE in its home market both for the month and for the quarter.

By: Mark Kane

Apr 23, 2021 at 8:25am ET

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March was a really strong month for plug-in electric car sales in France, as more than 30,700 new plug-ins were registered (up 297% year-over-year, from a low base in 2020 affected by a lockdown).

Passenger plug-ins (29,737) account for about 16.2% of the total new car market, which is one of the best results ever.

One of the most interesting things is that plug-in hybrids are surging like there's no tomorrow - up by 682% year-over-year and almost matching all-electric cars.

Passenger BEVs: 15,592 - up 183% at 8.5% market share
Passenger PHEVs: 14,145 - up 682% at 7.7% market share
Light commercial BEVs: 975 - up 131%
Total plug-ins: 30,712 - up 297%

Plug-in car sales in France – March 2021

So far this year, the plug-in segment increased 74% year-over-year to almost 65,000 and passenger plug-in hybrids are above all-electric cars.

Sales year-to-date:

Passenger BEVs: 30,489 - up 18%
Passenger PHEVs: 31,461 - up 231%
Light commercial BEVs: 2,821 - up 57%
Total plug-ins: 64,771 - up 74%

*some data on the charts are estimated

Models

The most striking thing in March was a massive delivery of the Tesla Model 3 in France. With 4,524 new registrations, Tesla not only beat everyone else last month but has become the top-selling model year-to-date with 5,763 units! Above the top local models - Renault ZOE and Peugeot e-208.

That's a huge win for Tesla Model 3, which is the top model in Q1 also in several other important markets in Europe.

The second best-selling model is the Peugeot e-208 (1,667 and 4,497 YTD), which also is beating the long-standing leader - Renault ZOE (1,519 and 3,606 YTD). In the most recent month, ZOE is no longer on the top.

The Renault Twingo Z.E. (1,114 and 2,294 YTD) and the Fiat 500 electric (838 and 1,865 YTD) completed the top five for the month.

The Kia Niro EV (627 and 1,942 YTD) was sixth, ahead of the Volkswagen ID.3 (527 and 1,030 YTD), which by the way only barely exceeded the Nissan LEAF (507 and 851 YTD).

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On the plug-in hybrid front, two models exceeded 1,000 units: the Peugeot 3008 PHEV (1,571) and Renault Captur PHEV (1,158).

Detailed numbers of plug-in car registrations provided by L’Avere-France: