France: Plug-In Car Sales Increased Slightly In 2022

It was a challenging year, as passenger car sales dropped to the lowest level since 1975.

By: Mark Kane

Jan 15, 2023 at 8:23pm ET

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New passenger car registrations in France remained stable in December at 158,006 (on par with December 2021), but the year 2022 was quite weak. The overall volume decreased nearly 8 percent year-over-year to 1.53 million units, which is the lowest result in 47 years (1.48 million in 1975).

The plug-in electric car market is growing, but relatively slowly. According to L’Avere-France, last month some 42,461 new plug-in vehicles were registered in France (up 6 percent year-over-year), including 39,488 passenger plug-in cars (up 2 percent), which represents 25.0 percent of the market (vs. 24.5% a year ago).

The growth comes solely from all-electric cars, as plug-in hybrids were down last month.

New plug-in vehicle registrations:

Passenger BEVs: 24,944 (up 8%) at 15.8% market share
Passenger PHEVs: 14,544 (down 6%) at 9.2% market share
Light commercial BEVs: 2,937 (up 100%) at 8.9% market share
Light commercial PHEVs: 36 (down 54%)
Total plug-ins: 42,461 (up 6%)

Plug-in car sales in France – December 2022

In 2022, more than 346,000 new plug-in electric cars were registered in France, compared to over 315,000 in 2021. That 10 percent of growth year-over-year is significantly lower than in previous years.

Registrations year-to-date:

Passenger BEVs: 202,929 (up 25%) at 13.3% market share
Passenger PHEVs: 126,547 (down 10%) at 8.3% market share
Light commercial BEVs: 16,810 (up 39%)
Light commercial PHEVs: 563 (up 2%)
Total plug-ins: 346,849 (up 10%)

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*some data on the charts are estimated

The future remains uncertain as on January 1, 2023, France lowered incentives for new all-electric cars from €6,000 to €5,000 ($5,422). Time will tell whether or not it will interrupt the growth.

Models

The most registered electric model in December was the Dacia Spring (2,800), followed by Tesla Model 3 (2,675), Renault Megane E-Tech (2,534) and Tesla Model Y (2,493).

In the full year, the best-selling all-electric model was the Peugeot e-208 (19,220), closely followed by the Dacia Spring (18,326). The Tesla Model 3 managed to beat the Renault Megane E-Tech and become the third-best with 16,754 units.

It's worth noting that with 11,892 Model Y sold, Tesla has a pretty strong position in France, which a few years ago was completely dominated by the locally produced Renault Zoe.

Top BEV models in 2022: