According to the latest data released by the French Automobile Manufacturers' Association (Comité des Constructeurs Français d'Automobiles: CCFA), registrations have increased 14.3% year on year (y/y) during the month to 266,551 units. The market has been supported by the addition of two further working days compared to a year ago – 22 days against 20 days during June 2014.

Yet even when these are taken into account, IHS Automotive says the CCFA data report that the market was up by around 3.9% y/y. The gains in June have further helped registrations during the first half of the year which now stands at 1,209,909 units, an increase of 5.2% y/y.

The positivity recorded last month has benefited both key categories that make up the light-vehicle market. Passenger car registrations have increased by 15.0% y/y to 225,645 units, and an increase of 4.5% y/y once the benefits of the additional working days are taken away. This has also lifted its year-to-date (YTD) performance, which is now up at 6.1% y/y to 1,017,500 units.

Many automakers saw gains last month, including the country's domestic firms. PSA Peugeot-Citroën saw the biggest improvement of the pair with an increase of 16.4% y/y to 65,598 units. The Peugeot brand recorded the biggest lift with an improvement of 20.4% y/y to 37,846 units, while Citroën was up 11.3% y/y to 24,045 units. Even the DS brand, which has been weak in recent months, gained 11.6% y/y to 3,707 units. The Renault Group's registrations grew by 8.55 y/y to 65,111 units as the Renault brand increased by 9.9% y/y to 53,471 units, and the Dacia brand saw a more marginal 2.3% y/y improvement to 11,640 units. Both domestic OEMs improved 3.5% y/y in the YTD.

The strong gains meant that registrations of the majority of foreign OEMs in the market have also benefited from the boost. They include the Volkswagen (VW) Group (+24.4% y/y), Ford (+9.9% y/y), Nissan (+20.1% y/y), Toyota (+21.6% y/y), Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA; +22.8%), General Motors (GM; +11.7% y/y) and Hyundai Group (+28.2% y/y). However, while BMW Group sales rose 20.3% y/y, Daimler recorded a decline in registrations of 8.7% y/y, despite the introduction of the latest-generation ForTwo and the reintroduction of the ForFour increasing the Smart brand's registrations by 82.6% y/y.

The CCFA also recorded a 10.5% y/y improvement in the light commercial vehicle (LCV) category up to 5.0 tonnes. During June, registrations increased from 37,024 units to 40,906 units. However, when the additional working days are taken into account, registrations are up by 0.4% y/y. In line with these gains, the Renault Group has recorded an increase of 9.5% y/y to 14,470 units while PSA has increased by 5.2% y/y to 11,648 units. This situation has helped to lift the YTD by 0.8% y/y to 192,409 units.

IHS Automotive added that it expects improvements during 2015, with passenger car registrations to increase by over 2.5% y/y to 1.845 million units, while LCV demand will grow by just under 3.5% y/y to around 384,600 units.