PSA Peugeot Citroen led French light vehicle sales lower in May as the market contracted 17% for a ninth straight monthly decline, the country’s main vehicle industry association said.
Peugeot sales plunged 28%, outpacing the overall market slump to 197,671 cars and light delivery trucks from 238,873 the previous May, the CCFA said in a statement cited by Reuters.
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Peugeot delivered 4,800 of the new 208 line introduced in April, along with 3,200 of the older 207 model – still short of the 9,500 registrations recorded by the 207 a year earlier.
There were three fewer sales days in May than in the same month last year as national holidays fell on weekdays instead of weekends. The 6 May presidential election run-off also disrupted sales, the association said.
“May was a pretty bad month, and the elections and holidays weighed heavily on sales,” CCFA spokesman Francois Roudier told Reuters. “People didn’t buy cars because they had other things to do.”
Adjusted for the disparity in sales days, French registrations fell a more modest 4.2%.
Renault posted a 14% sales decline while Fiat fell 21%.
Volkswagen meanwhile resisted the slump, gaining French market share even as its deliveries fell 13%. Hyundai Kia registrations surged 26% due to new models.
French passenger car registrations recorded a 16% decline for May, with delivery truck sales falling 23%.
For the first five months of 2012, overall light vehicle sales fell 16%, cars 17% and delivery trucks 8.9%, Reuters said.
