Where are the best-selling models produced in France? A quick tour of the producing countries in our car market.
Due to relocations, French automobile production is far from its former level and it is other countries that manufacture most of the cars sold in France. What remains of “made in France”? Here is a global overview of the countries supplying the best-sellers of the French automobile market.
Production reduced by three in France in 20 years
The time when France could boast of being one of the two largest automobile producers in Europe is long gone. In less than twenty years, the number of cars assembled in our factories has been divided by three! According to the latest report from the analysis firm Inovev, there were only 963,145 left in 2023. This is a far cry from the 3.2 million units produced annually between 2002 and 2004. While Germany has maintained its leadership, France is now positioned behind Spain and even the Czech Republic.
It must be said that, for twenty years, French manufacturers have initiated massive relocations of their stars to take advantage of cheaper labor. This is the case for Renault with the Twingo and then, later, the Clio, both now produced in Slovenia. The Peugeot 208 is assembled in Slovakia. At Citroën, some of the C3s are built in Spain and then all are exported to Slovakia… Nearly two decades later, the models, despite being Gallic, that are the best-selling on the French car market in 2024 have deserted our factories. To find out the extent of imports, Auto Plus looked, using data provided by Inovev, at the origin of the 100 best-selling models in France since the beginning of the year. Result: only fifteen of them come from national manufacturers.
A possible relocation of auto market production?
Can we hope that French industry will regain its former glory? Of course, the R5 E-Tech and the future Renault 4 SUV, which are scheduled to be marketed in September 2024 and early 2025 respectively, will be assembled in our country. But the diamond brand has chosen Spain to manufacture its Rafale and the future Symbioz, recently announced. As for Peugeot, the electric version of the 408 and the 5008 will be “made in France”. However, nothing new will come in the short term to stem the collapse of French production. Last May, the government signed: a strategic contract with the automotive industry. The main objective is to relocate the industry, in order to produce more than 2 million electric cars per year in the territory by 2030.
But for now, 2024 should still resemble the previous ones. The Inovev organization is counting on more or less a million units manufactured on our soil for this period. Slovak production could thus well exceed French production over the current year, and thus cause France to fall to fifth place among European automobile producing countries. To be continued…
Source: www.autoplus.fr
