French Car Sales Pursue Rebound to Pick Up 5.5% in September

Automobiles in a traffic jam on the Champs Elysee near the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysee ahead of a new curfew in Paris, France, on Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. France eased some of its key lockdown measures, while extending other curbs and introducing a new curfew, as the nation continued its fight to get a grip on the coronavirus. Photographer: Cyril Marcilhacy/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

Alexandre Rajbhandari, Bloomberg News

Oct 1, 2022

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(Bloomberg) --

French new car registrations extended a rebound in September, after being hit by the fallout from the war in Ukraine in the first half of the year.

France’s new passenger car sales rose 5.5% from a year earlier to 141,142, the PFA auto association said in a statement on Saturday. 

That followed a pick-up in sales starting in August. Earlier in the year sales saw steep monthly declines as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused multiple supply chain disruptions. Over the first nine months of 2022, new car registrations are still down nearly 12% to 1,112,072.

The September picture was mixed for different manufacturers. Stellantis NV sales rose 1.7% to 44,695, while Renault SA sales declined 5% to 34,578. The market for light trucks kept falling, with sales about 12% lower than a year earlier.

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