With 30,211 light commercial vehicles (under 5.1 tonnes) registrations for October, the market has seen a decline of nearly 25% on October 2020, in figures from Comité des Constructeurs Français d’Automobiles, the Automotive manufacturing association in France. The market may be seeing a run of consecutive declines, however, with 362,144 registration so far this year-to-date, this equates to a healthy 12.12% increase on the previous year.
How the First Six Months have Helped the Market Hold Tight Against 2020
With a clear drop of just under 10,000 sales on October 2020, the market is continuing to see external factors and general uncertainty bite. Stellantis remains the main seller in France by a clear margin (12,567 sales) which equates to over 40% of the market, followed by Renault at 8,751 sales. These sales correspond with the year-to-date sales, as Stellantis has 158,776 sales and the Renault Group has 104,796 sales so far this year. Both commercial vehicles manufacturers, therefore, are maintaining a near three-quarter share of the market.
As October 2020 had 22 working days and this October had 21, this constitutes in part for the figures, although the conductor shortages continue to affect production. We’ve seen throughout the year that the first six months created ripples in the market, with much healthier sales. With 362, 144 sales against 322,992 for the year-to-date, it looks like the market, in decline currently as it is should be able to end the year on a stronger foot than 2020.
