High competition weighs on French brands

• The market share of French brands in Europe has fallen significantly since 2019.
• In addition to new competitors entering the market, volume shifts within the respective brands of the Stellantis Group and the Renault-Nissan Alliance also play a role.
• At the same time, the French brands are still underrepresented in the rapidly growing SUV segment.

For some time now, the Western European automotive market has been characterised by increasing competitive pressure due to new brands entering the market, but also declining demand, particularly in the lower market segments and currently in the area of electric cars. French manufacturers and the groups to which they belong, Stellantis and the Renault-Nissan Alliance, are not immune.

In principle, the difficult market situation for French brands can be explained by both external and internal factors. Internally, they have to compete with sister brands within the groups. This situation can be illustrated by the example of the Stellantis group.

Sorted by size class, a picture emerges of strong intra-brand competition between the group’s brands, as almost every segment is served by at least three Stellantis brands (e.g. Citroen C3, Opel Corsa, Peugeot 208 in the PC small segment).

In addition to internal pressure, external pressure has been increasing for a number of years. Many new, mostly Chinese, manufacturers are entering the Western European market and competing with (often) cheaper products for the customers of the established manufacturers. This development is particularly damaging for French brands, as many of their products are priced in the lower to medium segments (90 percent of new registrations in the lower segments), whose customers pay close attention to the price positioning of the vehicles.

Loss of market share for French manufacturers – Dacia as an exception

In the past, French manufacturers have not adapted their model range to demand. As a result, French manufacturers are relatively strong in the smaller car segments, which are declining in importance, and relatively weak in the fast-growing SUV segment.

The internal and external pressure has a direct impact on the sales figures of the respective brands and groups. It can be seen that the market share of the Stellantis group and the combined share of Citroen, Peugeot and DS falls steadily from 2019 to 2023. This is also the case for Renault, while the Renault-Nissan Alliance’s market share starts to increase again from 2021 thanks to rising new registrations of Dacia models (from 3.7 percent in 2019 to 4.3 percent in 2023).

French brands are also under-represented in the electric vehicle segment compared to the overall market. Citroen’s market share is 2 percentage points below the overall market. Renault’s BEV market share is currently 1.1 percentage points lower.

In a country comparison of the ‘Big 5’ (Germany, France, UK, Italy, Spain), this decline is particularly noticeable in the domestic market. Citroen, in particular, will see a sharp decline of around 30% between 2019 and 2024, but Peugeot (-18%), Renault (-13%) and DS (-6.9%) will also lose market share.

Nevertheless, the French market remains the stronghold of French manufacturers, as they are still able to record the highest demand for their models there despite the declining demand.