Are electric cars popular in France?
The French car market closed the year 2021 with over 1.65 million new registrations (about 0.5% more than in 2020).
However, the plug-in electric segment expanded significantly to over 315,000 units (up 62% year-over-year).
Let’s first take a look at the December results. Last month, some 40,202 plug-in vehicles have been registered – new monthly record (up 8% year-over-year), including 38,658 passenger plug-ins and 1,544 commercial vehicles.
Passenger plug-ins also set the fifth consecutive monthly record market share at almost 24.5%.
New plug-in vehicle registrations:
- Passenger BEVs: 23,168 – up 12% at 14.7% market share
- Passenger PHEVs: 15,490 – up 2% at 9.8% market share
- Light commercial BEVs: 1,466 – up 9% at 3.8% market share
- Light commercial PHEVs: 78
- Total plug-ins: 40,202 – up 8%
Plug-in car sales in France – December 2021
In 2021, over 315,000 new plug-ins were registered in France. That’s 62% more than a year ago. The passenger plug-in car share increased to 18.3%.
Registrations year-to-date:
- Passenger BEVs: 162,106 – up 46%
- Passenger PHEVs: 141,234 – up 88%
- Light commercial BEVs: 12,085 – up 37%
- Light commercial PHEVs: 553
- Total plug-ins: 315,978 – up 62%
Only 14 hydrogen fuel cell vehicles were registered in 2021.
As we can see below, the last two years brought some serious volume to the plug-in segment.
According to our data, more than 780,000 plug-ins were sold in France since 2010, including almost 500,000 all-electric cars.
Models
In December, the Tesla model 3 was the top all-electric model with 3,959 units, followed by the ZOE (3,332) and Dacia spring (2,787).
It means that the Tesla Model 3 became the top passenger electric car in France in 2021, with a total of 24,911 units. It’s another country conquered by the Model 3.
The Renault ZOE was #2 with 23,573 units – however, there were also 2,127 registrations for commercial purposes. It would mean that more ZOE were put on the road then the Tesla Model 3.
We are counting the Tesla Model 3 as the best-selling passenger car, because the commercial registrations are a different category. Similarly does Jose Pontes (EV Volumes data) in his report for EV Sales Blog and recently Cleantechnica.
The third best selling model was the peugout (17,859 + 1,090 commercial units).
The three top all-electric passenger models are:
- Tesla Model 3: 24,911
- Renault ZOE: 23,573 (plus 2,127 commercial versions)
- Peugeot e-208: 17,859 (plus 1,090 commercial versions)
The three top passenger plug-in hybrid models are:
- Peugeot 3008 PHEV: 16,962 (plus 40 commercial versions)
- Renault Capture PHEV: 8,180 (plus 309 commercial versions)
- Citroen C5 AC PHEV: 7,097 (plus 11 commercial versions)
Detailed numbers of plug-in car registrations provided by France.
- A 6,000-euro government bonus for the purchase of a new EV (costing up to 45,000 euros) will be raised to 7,000 euros until the end of the year.
- Business and fleet buyers can receive 5,000 euros for an EV.
- Plug-in hybrids that cost up to 50,000 euros and have an electric range of at least a 50-km will get a 2,000-euro bonus.
