2014 looks as though it might have been the year when the vehicle market in France turned an important corner, after the years following the 2008 financial crisis. Passenger car sales rose by 0.3% compared with 2013 to 1,795,913. Renault registered the greatest number of cars during the year, reaching a total of 353,906, an increase of 4.8% compared with 2013. Peugeot took second place with 305,015, an increase of 5.3% compared with 2013. Not surprisingly, Citroën took third place with a total of 199,385, up 2.4% on 2013. Overall PSA Peugeot Citroën was the largest group on the French car market with a share of 29.9% totalling 536,146 registrations, not helped by a fall in DS registrations of -27.2% to 31,746. Dacia saw registrations rise in 2014 by 14.1% to 102,519.

The two French groups carved up the top 10 best selling cars between them. The Renault Clio was the best seller in 2014 with 105,182 registrations and a 5.9% market share. The Clio had a comfortable lead over the second placed Peugeot 208 with 83,965 registrations and a 4.7% market share. The Renault Captur edged the Peugeot 308 into fourth place with 62,985 registrations for the Captur. Dacia broke into the top 10 with the Sandero in 10th place with 44,357 registrations and a 2.5% market share. The Volkswagen Polo was the highest placed foreign car, taking 11th place with 40,407 registrations and a 2.2% market share.

France is predominantly a small car market, with CCFA/AAA data showing that 54% of the cars sold in 2014 were small, 44% were medium sized models with luxury models making up the remaining 5%. Saloons and hatchbacks account for around 53% of the 2014 market, with SUVs taking 23%.

Data also shows that the French are taking to low emitting cars in a decisive way. The market for cars emitting less than 90g/km CO2 has grown from 3.2% of the total market in 2012 to 7.7% in 2014. Similarly, cars emitting between 91 g/km and 130g/km have grown in share from 61.8% in 2012 to 75% in 2014. At the same time, the market for cars emitting above 131g/km CO2 has fallen from 34.9% in 2012 to 17.3% in 2014. That partly reflects the greater number of lower emitting cars that are now available.

Full service leasing

ALD manages some 335,000 vehicles in France, representing 22.5% of the country’s full service leasing and fleet management market according to Guillaume Maureau, director general of ALD France. He estimates the total vehicle parc in France at around 38 million vehicles and of these, he suggests that around 5.0m are used for professional purposes.

Of these, he estimates that some 1.5m are operated under full service leasing, or by fleet management companies. Alphabet puts the figure slightly lower at around 1.1m, while Citroën’s data was based on the market to the end of November 2014, by which time the company says that 789,800 cars had been registered in France during the course of the year. That would probably bring the final total, based on those figures to around 860,000. So there is some variation in the estimates, but as we say, it all depends on how the market is calculated.

Overall some 44% of registrations are for business use. Guillaume Maureau at ALD reckons the business market is made up as follows: ‘Full service leasing and companies which purchase cars outright, 20%, car rental 9% and direct sales from manufacturers 15%.’

Loyalty of French customers

Given that France has an active motor manufacturing industry with The PSA Peugeot Citroën Group representing Peugeot, Citroën and DS, while the Renault Group includes Renault and Dacia, it is not surprising that French manufacturers dominate the French domestic market, with some 75% of business cars being of French origin. Altogether there are some 34 assembly and production plants in France, matching the UK and Russia, according to data from the European motor manufacturers association ACEA. Besides the French manufacturers, Daimler, Iveco, Toyota and Volkswagen also have plants in France. Choice of business vehicles tends to follow the general pattern for vehicle sales in France. According to data from the Syndicat National des Loueurs de Voitures Longue Durée (SNLVLD), the trade body representing long term car rental suppliers, in the third part of 2014, the Renault Clio was the best selling lease vehicle, followed by the Peugeot 208, Citroën C3, Citroën C4 and Picasso, with the Renault Kangoo in fifth place.

Among business car users, the SUV is gaining popularity, ‘The SUV trend is now very strong,’ says Guillaume Maureau, ‘Even in car policies with new models like the Renault Captur. The Captur is doing very well in fleets, even in large fleets. This is quite a surprise for us and for Renault. It is doing very well as is the Peugeot 2008. We can see the same trend with the Nissan Qashqai and the Opel Mokka.’

Falling popularity of diesel

France used to have one of the highest penetrations of diesel car registrations in Europe, reaching an average of 73% of the car market in 2012. Since then the mix has changed quite sharply, possibly due to the strength of the small car market in the country and the shift to petrol powered cars among small models. For 2014, the diesel mix had fallen to 64% of the market. That is reflected in the fleet sector too with the diesel share falling and the petrol share rising. According to Guillaume Maureau at ALD, the petrol share has grown from 7.4% in 2012 to 11.7% in 2014.

Increased uptake of EVs & hybrids

How much has the market for electric and hybrid models grown? According to Alphabet, in Q3 2014, the leasing market accounted for 16% of electric cars and 13% of the hybrid cars registered and in November, sales of hybrid and electric cars took a 3.5% market share. Citroën suggests that for the January to November period, hybrids took a 1.93% share of the market, while electric cars took 0.64%. ‘If we speak about full electric,’ says ALD’s Guillaume Maureau, ‘the fleet market has grown from 0.2% market share in 2012 to 0.4% in 2014 having grown to a 0.6% share in 2013. At the same time the share for hybrids has grown from 1.7% in 2012 to 4.0% in 2014. ‘The trend is that diesel is going down, petrol is going up and hybrid is doing quite well,’ says Maureau. ‘Electric was doing quite well, but only in the public sectors.’ 

Renault dominated the light CV sector registering 117,823 vehicles in 2014, an increase of 1.3%. Citroën took the 2nd place with a total of 63,233 registrations, up 2.6% compared with 2013. Overall the market rose 1.3% during the year with a total of 372,065 registrations, with PSA Peugeot Citroën taking a 33.1% share of the market and the Renault Group close behind with a share of 32.6%. Even so, Renault had by far the largest slice of the market with 31.7%.

Potential for car sharing

‘There are no official figures for the French market’, says Alphabet of car sharing schemes in France, ‘Yet some studies show that this solution should increase strongly in the coming years in Europe: Frost & Sullivan expects that from now to 2018-2020, 80 000 vehicles will be car-shared in European companies. The number of providers should move from 13 to 30 from now to 2020. The number of European companies providing a car sharing solution to their employees should move from 200 in 2013 to 4,000 in 2020. This will represent 0.5 % of the global European business fleets (0.01% in 2013).’

Autolib is one of the growing car sharing schemes operating in France with most cars operating in Paris, while the scheme has also expanded to other cities. The scheme uses only electric cars, predominantly the Bolloré Bluecar. Over 2,000 are already in use. Citroën suggests that several large companies are already using car-sharing schemes, such as L’Oréal, Michelin, Airbus and Safran.

Like many other European countries, business cars attract a tax, TVS ("Taxe sur les Véhicules de Société") calculated according to the carbon dioxide emissions. From 2013, this has been supplemented with an additional component, intended to reflect the atmospheric pollutant effects. This tax is applied differently to petrol, diesel, diesel hybrid, electric vehicles and light CVs. A scale of charges operates to reflect not only the power source but also the age of the vehicle and therefore the emissions from it. Alphabet supplied the following tables to explain the taxes.

Financing options

Alphabet also offers some data on how business cars are financed.

‘Big companies are using long term rental as a major way of financing their fleets: externalising the management of their company cars has been a reality for years now.

‘Smaller companies still behave as individuals and finance their vehicles like they would do for their own cars. The market of small companies represents a big opportunity of development for long-term rental!’