Electric car sales are catching up to diesel cars

In a struggling auto market, electric cars continue to gain ground. In France, registrations have never been this close to those of diesel cars.

In 40 years, the auto market has never been this bad! After the health crisis and the semiconductor shortage, it is now the war in Ukraine that is causing new shortages and contracting the economy. As gas prices at the pump skyrocket, sales of new passenger cars are falling for the tenth consecutive month. According to the data provided by AAA-Data, 147,079 new cars were registered in France during the month of March. This is 20 % fewer than during the same period in 2021 (182,774) and 35 % fewer than in 2020 (225,818).

Nearly 20,000 new vehicle registrations in March

With 19,835 units sold and a market share of 13.45% in Q3 in March, electric vehicles have never been this close to diesel vehicles, whose registrations have plummeted to 21,075 units. A historic low!

On the electric vehicle front, these results can be largely attributed to the growth of certain brands. In March, electric cars accounted for 17 % of sales at Dacia, 26 % at Kia, and 21 % at Hyundai. Boosted by its 500 electric, Fiat has even seen its electric vehicle sales soar to 48 %.

Tesla, which continued to gain momentum toward the end of the quarter, also contributed to the segment's strong results in March. The automaker's flagship model, the Model 3 sold nearly 4,000 copies last month, while the Model Y is nearing 1,000 units sold. Added to this is the strong performance of the Dacia Spring and the Renault ZOE, with 2,111 and 1,127 units registered, respectively, during the period. These four models alone accounted for more than 40 % of the segment's registrations.

The Plug-in Hybrid Is in Good Shape

If the hybrid car sales While sales fell by 9 %—a first since the spring 2020 lockdown—plug-in hybrids remain on track. With 11,690 registrations, the segment reached nearly 8 % market share last month.