Bleak 2012 for French auto sales

French new car registrations hit a 15-year low point in 2012 and business looks like it will be just as tough this year, data from the French automobile manufacturers’ association CCFA showed yesterday, mirroring slumps seen elsewhere in the 17-nation eurozone.

In France, auto sales fell by 13.9 per cent in 2012 to 1.899 million units, a CCFA statement said.

The drop was compounded by the end of government-funded buying schemes that had boosted sales between 2009 and early 2011.

The worst hit companies were French automakers Peugeot Citroen, where sales shrank by 17.5 per cent, and Renault, down by 22 per cent.

Foreign builders saw an overall drop of 6.7 per cent, but deliveries by German luxury car companies Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz actually grew, while those by the South Korean group Hyundai-Kia literally took off.

“All the multi-range car companies shrank, while higher end carmakers held on,” a spokesman at CCFA said.

“The drop in sales of light utility vehicles and trucks is very worrying as it signals a slowdown in the economy,” the spokesman added.

A huge exception to the poor results was Hyundai-KIA which saw sales skyrocket 28.2 per cent to take a 2.19 per cent market share.

“We are waiting for a 2013 market to be at best like that of 2012. We’ll look for the trend in the first quarter,” the spokesman said.

Elsewhere across the eurozone, registrations of new cars in Italy fell by 19.87 per cent last year to 1.4 million units, plunged by 37.9 per cent in Portugal and lost 14.94 per cent in Belgium.

In Spain, automakers said they anticipated a “complicated” situation in 2013, after sales fell by 13.4 per cent in 2012 to just under 700,000 vehicles.