Paris (AFP)

New passenger car registrations in France grew by nearly 4% in July, the CCFA Manufacturers' Committee announced on Saturday, welcoming that the support measures deployed by the government in favor of the sector "have worked well".

There were 178,981 new passenger car registrations in July, up 3.92% year-on-year, even as July 2020 had one less working day, according to a statement.

"We are in a very good month of July, we have one day less compared to 2019, it was even a bit of a surprise for us to see that this month of July was attacking so hard", commented to the AFP spokesperson for CCFA François Roudier.

"The month of July bears the mark of the government's support measures, in particular the measures in favor of destocking after containment which have worked well," he added.

The French car market had collapsed by 72% in March, 89% in April and 50% in May, under the effect of containment to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Distribution had been paralyzed and factories shut down, before resuming from May.

The French automobile market, stimulated by government support measures, began to rebound in June (+ 1.2%).

To revive auto sales after containment, the government has notably strengthened the bonuses for the purchase of electric vehicles and introduced aid for plug-in hybrids. The conversion premium for the scrapping of an old vehicle has been extended to reach a wide audience.

- Renault in good shape -

The increase recorded in July can be explained in part by the good performance of the French group Renault (+ 33%), whose brands Renault and Dacia jumped by 41% and 15% respectively.

The other major national manufacturer, PSA, on the other hand suffered a decline of 5%. While the lion brand Peugeot has won an increase of just over 6%, the Citroën, DS and Opel labels have fallen by 20%, 16% and 12% respectively.

As for foreign manufacturers, the German Volkswagen, by far the leading importer in France, saw its registrations drop by 13%, pulled down by its VW and Audi brands.

The month of July was also complicated for the German groups BMW (-3%) and Daimler (-25%). The Italian-American FCA (Fiat, Jeep, etc.) saw its registrations drop by around 15%.

However, some have done well, like the Japanese Nissan (+ 28%) and Toyota (+ 14%), the American Ford (+ 5%) or even the Korean Hyundai (+ 26%).

Over the seven months from January to July, the automotive market shows the stigma of containment and the economic crisis linked to the Covid-19 epidemic. New registrations reached a total of 894,779 vehicles, roughly 440,000 less than in the same period last year.

This represents a plunge of 33%, felt in a generalized way by French and foreign groups.

As for the next few months, "we think the third quarter is going to be a good quarter, but the unknown is the fourth quarter. The unknowns are still very heavy, on the morale of households and businesses, all that will be decided in the fourth quarter ", underlined Mr. Roudier.

© 2020 AFP