The last few months have been marked by a drop in new car sales. December figures will be released next week, but we can already say that 2024 will have been a bad year for the automotive industry. During the first eleven months of the year, new car registrations fell 3.7% compared to the same period in 2023.
Barring a very unlikely recovery in December, dealers will have delivered fewer than 1.7 million cars for the year. For the record, before 2019, the annual average was over 2 million. This clear decline in sales goes hand in hand with an increase (+3.6% since the beginning of the year) in purchases of used cars, which represent more than three out of every four sales this year.
Prices continue to fall in general
However, the increase in the number of motorists who prefer second-hand vehicles to new ones does not increase the prices at which transactions are carried out. The latter had already fallen significantly in 2023 and generally continue to decline.
According to data published each year by leboncoin (the largest provider of car sales advertisements), the price drop reaches almost 4.5% for the most recent models. The average for a vehicle less than 2 years old thus increases from 30,475 to 29,113 euros, an amount requested before a possible negotiation.
However, models older than 8 years cost more than a year ago.
That said, the fact that demand is increasing has still had an impact on the value of older models, which are now the most sought after. The average price of cars more than 8 years old (9,561 euros) increases by 3.8%.
By contrast, electric models suffer from demand struggling to keep up with supply. The fact that there are many more electric models on the market, both new and now second-hand, is clearly reducing prices: -14.8%. The average thus went from 28,986 to 24,798 euros. Admittedly, the sharp drop in fuel prices is not helping to convince motorists that it is time to go electric.
Source: BFM TV
