The loss of the French bonus strongly affected registrations of the three most popular Chinese-made electric models in the French market, according to a Reuters calculation based on sector and company data.
The increase in imports of Chinese cars in Europe has led the European Union to threaten customs tariffs, one of the points of friction that should be addressed during the state visit of the Chinese president to France this Monday, May 6.
Tesla Model 3, MG4 and Dacia Primavera
Although during the January-November 2023 period the registrations of the Dacia Spring (Renault group), the Tesla Model 3 and the MG4 (SAIC group) represented 24% of electric car registrations in France, this weight has not ceased decrease since January. going from 22% at the beginning of the year to just 4% in April, the month for which the figures were published on Wednesday.
Last December, however, the weight of the three models jumped to 32% due to an influx of demand in anticipation of the tightening of the rules for granting the electricity bonus – now between 4,000 and 7,000 euros – as of December 15.
The French government has decided to take into account CO2 emissions throughout the vehicle production cycle to favor the most virtuous models, excluding vehicles imported from Asia from the aid system due to the distance traveled and the energy mix used to produce them.
Electric cars manufactured in Europe have been favored. However, the trend since the beginning of the year has been temporarily exacerbated by an additional 50,000 orders linked to the “social leasing” system, which closed at the beginning of February and to which Chinese-made vehicles are also ineligible.
The drop in registrations of the Chinese-made trio was also accentuated by the transition from the old Spring to the new one, whose first deliveries will begin in September, and by MG’s strategy to focus on sales of hybrid models in 2024. .
A 2023 bonus that was still applied at the beginning of the year.
At Tesla, sales of the Model 3 were also boosted last year by the end of marketing of the model before its redesign at attractive prices. And a start to the race for this “improved version” that could still benefit from the ecological bonus in case of order before December 15, 2023 and delivery in early 2024.
In this context that favored deliveries at the beginning of the year, these three models remained quite well among the top 10 in sales of new electric cars from January to April, according to data from NGC Data for BFM Business.
Thus, the Tesla Model 3 occupies sixth place (5,323 units) in the first four months of the year, the MG4 is eighth (3,917 units) and the Dacia Spring is eleventh (2,882 units).
On the other hand, in the month of April alone, these three models fell sharply in the ranking, with the Tesla Model 3 in 11th place (695 units), the MG4 in 19th position (406 units) and the Dacia Spring in the bottom. Career in 60th place (32 units).
For comparison, the best-selling electric models in April were the Peugeot e-208 (3,185 units) and the e-2008 (2,164 units).
Thanks to the tightening of the bonus, the French government hopes to give European manufacturers a break to reduce their competitiveness gap with Chinese brands, in time to face its next offensive, this time on small models affordable enough to achieve success. commercial without the need for a bonus from the state.
Source: BFM TV
