French sales up 9% in February, but orders fall

French new-car sales rose by 9.4 percent in February, the seventh-consecutive monthly increase, with Skoda, Nissan and Dacia each recording gains of more than 30 percent.

There were 126,237 registrations in February, trade group PFA said. That a figure was still 27 percent below February 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic. 

Julien Billon, the CEO of market watcher AAA Data, said in a release that deliveries of cars ordered months ago were driving the increased demand, but that orders were down 9 percent compared with January. \

"If this keeps up, the inventory waiting to be put on the road will run out in the first half of 2023 and the second half will be paved with obstacles," he said.

The biggest gainers among volume brands were Skoda (+38 percent) Nissan (+35 percent) and Dacia (+34 percent). 

Stellantis, France’s largest group, was down by 4 percent, with 18 percent gains at both DS and Opel failing to offset declines at Citroen (-24 percent) and Fiat (-13 percent).

Renault Group was up by 21 percent on Dacia’s strong performance and a 14 percent gain at Renault.

Full-electric cars accounted for 16 percent of sales for the month, compared with 12 percent in February 2022, with plug-in hybrids at 8 percent. 

Plug-in hybrids' market share has remained flat for the past two years, with EVs' share more than doubling in that time frame.