Latest data published by the French Automobile Manufacturers' Association (CCFA) and analysed by IHS Automotive shows combined passenger car and light commercial vehicle (LCV) registrations reached 204,220 units, a gain of 1.6% year on year (y/y). There was also no benefit from the number of working days this month, at 22. However, gains earlier in 2016 are reflected by an increase of 6.3% y/y during the year to date (YTD), which now stands at 1,802,482 units.

Passenger car registrations grew by 2.5% y/y to 168,827 units. As a result, the growth during the first nine months of the year now stands at 5.7% y/y to 1,502,457 units.

Domestic passenger car manufacturing groups had a very mixed performance. Renault Group overtook Groupe PSA to be the biggest selling OEM this month, with its registrations increasing by 8.2% y/y to 45,343 units. While the core Renault brand rose 7.1% y/y to 36,777 units, the Dacia brand recorded an even bigger 13.5% y/y improvement. Groupe PSA on the other hand struggled with a decline of 6.8% y/y to 44,833 units as all its brands contracted. The Peugeot brand was its best performer this month but still fell 2.4% y/y to 27,840 units, while the Citroën and DS Automobiles brands have fallen by 13.5% y/y to 14,569 units and 12.2% y/y to 2,424 units, respectively.

Among the other leading OEMs in the country, the Volkswagen Group turned around earlier negative performances with an increase of 8.1% y/y to 21,568 units in September. Driving these gains was a 9.5% y/y uplift in VW brand registrations to 12,176 units. It was also helped along by Audi (+14.1% y/y, 5,259 units) and Skoda (+5.3% y/y, 2,252 units), although the SEAT brand slid by 14.9% y/y to 1,399 units. Other improvers included Toyota Group (+9.1% y/y, 6,697 units), Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA; +8.4% y/y, 6,812 units), General Motors (+10.3% y/y, 5,663 units), Kia (+14.0% y/y, 2,829 units) and Hyundai (+17.9% y/y, 2,155 units).

As for premium OEMs, BMW Group was the largest by volume with 7,306 units, but saw a gain of just 0.9% y/y to 7,306 units. However, others saw far bigger improvements with increases at Daimler of 6.9% y/y to 6,311 units and Volvo Cars seeing a jump of 12.2% y/y to 1,246 units.

There were some more negative performances though, with Nissan sliding 6.6% y/y to 6,605 units while Ford fell by 9.9% y/y to 6,112 units.

In contrast, LCV registrations fell this month by 2.1% y/y to 35,393 units. Nevertheless, its performance in the YTD has held firm with gains of 9.7% y/y to 300,025 units. It has been a mixed month for the local OEMs as while Renault Group was the largest with 12,567 units registered, it suffered a fall of 10.3% y/y to 12,567 units. On the other hand, PSA made a small 1.0% y/y improvement to 11,029 units.

Looking forward to the end of the year, IHS Automotive has changed its forecast for the French market marginally, anticipating that passenger car registrations this year will grow by just over 5.5% y/y to 2.025 million units, followed by increases to 2.065 million units during 2017 and 2.09 million units in 2018. As for LCV registrations up to 6 tonnes, the firm anticipates an increase of over 7.0% y/y to 406,000 units, while in 2017 it expects a further increase to 416,000 units and another marginal improvement in 2018 to 417,000 units.