With 182,712 cars on the roads in France, an increase of 24.3% compared to the previous month, the month of March reflects the 8 months that have just passed for an automotive industry that is visibly to relaunch three years after the start of the Covid crisis. Compared to 1is quarter of 2022, the first three months of 2023 sign a…
With 182,712 cars on the roads in France, an increase of 24.3% compared to the previous month, the month of March reflects the 8 months that have just passed for an automotive industry that is visibly to relaunch three years after the start of the Covid crisis. Compared to 1is quarter of 2022, the first three months of 2023 saw an increase in the number of registrations of +15.2%.
A “revival” which benefits fully in France, to French manufacturers. PSA (Peugeot, Citroën, Fiat, etc.), which already weighs 31% of the market share in France, seems to be driving the point home, posting an increase of + 35% in its sales compared to March 2022 and Renault, which is also posting a + 30% flattering compared to the same month last year.
A false economic recovery for the car?
Can we therefore speak of a buoyant situation for the automotive industry? Not that easy. In reality, the economic situation of the automotive industrial sector is in an air pocket. Indeed, it appears that the registration figures for its last eight months “are the result of sales made 8, 9, 10 months ago but that, due to a lack of electronic components in sufficient number, it was necessary to deliver late. Current registrations are the result of orders made at the end of the health crisis,” explains Flavien Neuvy, economist and director of the Cetelem observatory. “We know from experience that the volume of orders directly depends on the economic situation. That the economic situation impacts the acts of purchase. Also we can say that from now on, the automotive industry is in an air pocket more than in a buoyant dynamic”, analyzes the economist, who believes that “manufacturers now have access to components to relaunch the chains at full of production. But they don’t really have the controls in front of them and have to put the pedal on the brake”.
How automakers can boost the numbers
In fact, while deliveries, and therefore registrations, are at their highest since the Covid crisis, current sales are far below those recorded before Covid (2.2 million cars sold). In 2022, 1.5 million new vehicles were sold in the country. “We are at sales levels that do not yet compete with what we knew before the crisis. Clearly, manufacturers are currently facing a drop in demand,” explains Flavien Neuvy.
To compensate, manufacturers are tempted to “boost” their figures by adding the low-margin sales made to short-term rental companies, which represent nearly 10% of registrations, and they add to the figures the registrations of their demonstration vehicles (10,362 vehicles at Peugeot at 1is quarter). The whole can represent, depending on the brand, up to 30% of registrations recorded in the first quarter of 2023. In reality, for eleven months, orders have been plunging (-21.7% in March).