French sales fall 7% in July as decline continues to slow

PARIS -- French new-car registrations fell by 7.1 percent in July as the rate of decline continued to slow. Fiat, Hyundai and Renault registered the biggest gains for the month among volume brands.

There were 107,547 cars sold in the month on 20 selling days, according to industry group PFA. There were 21 selling days in July 2021; adjusted for the same number of selling days, the decline would have been just 4.1 percent.

The market is down 15 percent for the January-July period, PFA said. Sales fell by 14 percent in June.

Fiat sales were up 35 percent behind strong sales for the 500 minicar, which ranks 11th among all models in France through July. Hyundai was up 20 percent and Renault gained 14 percent, as production and sales of the new Megane E-Tech Electric compact ramped up. Renault has sold 4,736 units for the year, with nearly 2,000 coming in July.

Renault Group gained 11 percent, led by the Renault brand’s strong performance. Stellantis was down 9.9 percent, as Fiat’s gains did not off set a 16 percent drop at Peugeot and a 7.6 percent fall at Citroen. Even so, Stellantis regained its No. 1 ranking by group after a rare loss to Renault in June. Stellantis had 35,886 sales for the month, while Renault registered 24,811.