The car manufacturing market - France

The automotive manufacturing market encompasses several activities, namely the design, manufacture and marketing of passenger vehicles. In France, national brands continue to hold a strong grip on total car sales. However, national players have been hard hit by the Covid-19 crisis. In addition, the European Commission is exertingincreased pressure on pollutant emissions; the environmental targets set by Brussels for CO2 emissions pose real challenges for automakers in terms of sales of electric and hybrid vehicles. This type of vehicle has seen its market share increase exponentially in recent years, reaching almost 40% of registrations by 2022. in the wake of the Covid crisis, production volumes by the various French players in the market have fallen sharply. What's more, the French market is highly concentrated, with two main players, the Renault group and Stellantis. An emerging trend is the increasing outsourcing of production to countries other than France. After an almost 30% drop in sales in 2020 and supply difficulties, particularly in semiconductors, in 2021 and 2022, the sector still saw growth of 13.4% in 2022, albeit still below the 2019 thresholds. The sector's trade balance is increasingly in deficit, reaching 15.7 billion in 2022, with imports from China rising sharply in 2022, from 800 million to 2.7 billion. The sector looks set to continue growing in 2023, with a significant increase in sales for the first half of 2023, driven by higher car prices. However, the sector continues to face supply problems and strong regulatory constraints from decision-making bodies concerning pollution emitted by vehicles. Against this backdrop, industry players are under constant pressure to adapt.