A market at its lowest point for more than 10 years. In 2022, 5,128 million used cars were sold in France, 14.1% less than the record reached in 2021, according to figures from Autoscout24.
The new housing crisis now strikes the occasion
“The price increase observed in 2021 combined with a low supply had already caused a certain slowdown in the market at the end of 2021. The second-hand market was therefore unable to compensate for the lack of new vehicles put on the road by manufacturers. “, explains Vincent Hancart, Managing Director of Autoscout24 France.
This second-hand crisis is a consequence of the crisis that has affected the new housing market for almost 3 years. From 2016 to 2019, more than 2 million new cars were sold in France every year before the covid-related abandonment and component crisis. In 2022, the abandonment of the sector continues to be impressive, with a drop of close to 8% and just over one and a half million new cars sold, something unprecedented since 1975.
After having been, therefore, the engine of a second-hand market in 2020 and 2021, an alternative solution for some buyers in the face of the explosion in delivery times for new construction, this crisis in the sector has finally exhausted the available stocks. What we found in particular in recent model registrations: sales of pre-owned vehicles less than a year old fell by more than 34% last year.
“Usually, we see a pendulum movement between new and used. In 2022, this phenomenon was not observed with the two markets in large deficit”, underlines Vincent Hancart.
On the contrary, as Challenges reminds us, highlighting the Argus figures, the number of transactions on the older models -15 years and older- has remained stable because supply is abundant.
Sharp price increase on gasoline models
With a lag of about 10 years compared to the new ones in the sales structure by engine, Diesel continues to be predominant with 52% of sales in 2022. Its market share has lost only 5.8% compared to 2021. The rest of the market is shared with gasoline models at 41%, hybrid at 4.5% and electric at 1.4%.
The growth of gasoline, hybrid and electric engines in recent years has been clearly slowed down by the lack of supply. Given the strong demand, prices have logically skyrocketed: +20.7% in one year for gasoline models, while Diesel only increased by 9%.
Overall, prices have increased by 15.7% in the last 12 months, to almost 30,000 euros on average. In 2019, the average price for this ad was still close to €22,000. An identical observation can be found on the Le Bon Coin platform, where all age categories combined, the average price of a transaction fell from €14,100 in 2021 to €16,300 last year.
“By 2023, we think prices should fall in view of professional stocks starting to rise and demand remaining weak until at least mid-year,” forecasts Vincent Hancart.
The latter, therefore, recommends that buyers “show a little patience before prices return to more reasonable levels.”
Source: BFM TV
