France April 2021

 Peugeot shines in hot market 

The French plugin market continues on the fast lane, with April's plugin share reaching 15% last month (6.8% BEV), keeping the YTD share at a record 14% (6.9% BEV), which is a 3% increase over the 2020 result (11%), and the 20% share i predicted for the whole of this year looks on target. 

Interestingly, most of the growth is coming from PHEVs, with plugin hybrids representing 54% of registrations in April, a 2% increase over this year average and a significant jump over the 40% they had in 2020. Maybe it's time to cut subsidies on PHEVs?

After winning in January the Best Seller trophy for the first time, the Peugeot 3008 PHEV has done it again, and with a record performance (1,726 registrations), its second in a row, and with the 208 EV ending the month in the second spot, Peugeot had a 1-2 win last month. 

This time the Renault Zoe got a podium seat, benefiting from the usual off month of the Tesla Model 3 (209 units in April), but the Renault EV is far from its best days, this being only its second podium this year (the other was a 3rd place in January).

The bad news continued for Renault, with the Twingo EV being beaten by its Stellantis rival,  the Fiat 500e, with the Italian EV jumping to 4th, thanks to 740 units.   

The only ray of light for the Renault-Nissan Alliance was the (slow) deliveries ramp up of the Dacia Spring, now at 249 units, so we should see the low-cost EV showing up on the table in the coming months. 

Elsewhere, a mention to the record score (its second in a row) of the #7 Mini Cooper EV, with 592 deliveries, while the VW ID.4 showed up in #17, thanks to 372 deliveries, just 19 units below the VW ID.3, that had another disappointing performance, with just 391 registrations.

Below the Top 20, a mention to the 282 deliveries of the Citroen C4 EV, a new record for the nameplate and a sign that the production ramp up is still in development, while the Skoda Enyaq landed, with 134 units, a promising sign for the Czech MEB-based station wagon desguised as SUV.

Looking at the 2021 ranking, the Peugeot 208 EV recovered the leadership, but with the Top 3 separated by just 220 units, anything can still happen between them.

Other Stellantis models climbing positions were the Fiat 500e and Citroen C5 Aircross PHEV, with the small EV climbing to #7 and the SUV to #8. 

The Mercedes GLC300e/de is also going up, with the German SUV now at #10, while on the second half of the table, we now have the Mini Cooper EV jumping 3 spots, to #16, while April saw another Mercedes join the table, with the compact GLA250e jumping to #18, thus making the current Top 20 score among the 3 Marys now showing: Mercedes - 2 vs Audi and BMW - 0. Who would have thought a couple of years ago, that Mercedes would be the most dynamic of the three...

Another sign regarding the Rise of the PHEVs, is the fact that between the #17 Peugeot 508 PHEV and the #23 Volvo XC60 PHEV, all models belong to the plugin hybrid category...

Looking at the manufacturers ranking, Peugeot (18%) and Renault (15%) are stable in the top positions, while Tesla (7% share, down 2%) closes the podium, ahead of the rising Mercedes (6%).

As for OEMs, Stellantis is the major force, with a commanding 30% share, with the Renault-Nissan Alliance far behind, with only 16%, while the best foreign OEM is the Volkswagen Group, with 11% share.