French electric vehicle sales doubled in September compared with the same period last year. Renault Zoe took the lead.

SMM: despite the decline in overall new car sales in France in September, electric vehicle sales have seen a significant increase, setting an all-time high monthly sales record. In the month, French electric car sales surged 207 per cent year-on-year to 18588. In the passenger car segment, electric vehicles have a market share of about 10.6%.

In September, there was a new trend in the French electric car market: pure electric models have always dominated the French electric car market, but last month sales of the French plug-in hybrid (PHEV) increased nearly sixfold compared with the same period last year, and PHEV sales are likely to catch up with pure electric vehicles in the near future.

Specifically, French pure electric passenger car sales rose 138% year-on-year to 10011 units in September; PHEV passenger vehicle sales rose 486% year-on-year to 7867; and pure electric light commercial vehicle sales rose 37% year-on-year to 706 units.

Since 2020, cumulative sales of pure electric passenger vehicles in the French market have increased by 132 per cent year on year to 70538; PHEV passenger vehicle sales have risen 244 per cent year on year to 40467; and pure electric light commercial vehicle sales have fallen 8 per cent year on year to 5557. Total electric vehicle sales rose 142 per cent year-on-year to 116562.

In September, there were some interesting changes in the French electric car sales rankings, with the Renault Zoe still firmly at the top of the rankings, with 2878 vehicles sold in September and about 26000 this year. In second and third place were Peugeot Emur208 and Tesla Model 3, with September sales of 1230 and 1083 respectively. In fourth place was the newly released Volkswagen ID.3, with 616 registrations. Kia Niro EV and Hyundai Kona Electric, which had previously performed strongly in the rankings, had 583 and 559 registrations in September, respectively, ranking fifth and sixth, respectively. Other models in the top 10 include Opel CORSA (400), Peugeot Emur2008 (376), Mini Cooper SE (239) and Nissan Leaf (217).