Last month in France the Renault ZOE was the third best selling car with 5.331 units delivered to private buyers, only behind the ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) cars PEUGEOT 208 and Renault Clio.

To the 5.331 units sold to private buyers, we can add 140 more that were sold to companies, making a total of 5.471 new Renault ZOE units sold in France last month.

Let’s see the car sales figures to private buyers in France last month.

The best selling car was the PEUGEOT 208 with 9.463 units sold, of which 2.537 (27 %) were electric (e-208). This percentage could drop in the coming months since Peugeot expects that only 15 % of the total 208’s sales to be electric.

The Nissan LEAF also managed to be in the top 100, but only achieved the 99º position.

The great sales month of Renault ZOE helped the overall electric car sales increase to 8,2 percent of the total private car buyers market. Moreover, by comparing this January sales to last year, we can clearly see the trend of ICE sales being replaced by hybrid and electric.

Anyway, last year Renault sold more than 46.000 units of the ZOE worldwide, but didn’t reach the full production capacity of 60.000 units. However, due to more stricter EU emission standards starting this year, Renault expects to incrementally increase annual production capacity until reaching 120.000 units by 2022.

Finally, with the introduction of the Renault Twingo ZE this year, Renault seems to be in the right track to consolidate its position as an electric car leader in Europe.

Moreover, Renault also promised a new-generation electric motor for 2021. Current electric motors from Renault were designed for small cars and low speeds. A new electric motor it’s definitely required to allow better efficiency at high-speeds and it’ll probably be introduced in a larger electric car like a crossover or SUV. An all electric Renault CAPTUR wouldn’t surprise me…

What do you think? Was January sales figures an exception? Or it just demonstrates that Renault is starting to push ZOE’s sales harder, not only due to stricter EU emissions regulations, but also due to the arrival of good alternatives such as the PEUGEOT e-208, Opel Corsa-e, Volkswagen ID. 3, Kia e-Soul and Hyundai Kona Electric?

More info:

https://ccfa.fr/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/dp-01-2020.pdf

https://www.automobile-propre.com/voiture-electrique-10952-immatriculations-parts-de-marche-en-janvier-2020/

https://bestsellingcarsblog.com/2020/02/france-january-2020-peugeot-208-ii-breaks-nameplate-record-share-renault-zoe-up-to-3-in-market-upended-by-new-emission-rules-and-bonus-malus-13-4/