France Gets Highest Car Sales Since 2001

The fact that the automobile industry is seriously affected by the global recession is no secret to anybody, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that all car sales went down, as France is expected to announce its highest car sales since 2001.

According to French newspaper Les Echos, the increase is related to the fact that drivers took advantage of government scrapping and other incentive schemes before the end of 2009.

The newspaper also said it is expected that more than 2.25 million cars have been sold in France in 2009, while registrations are up 40 percent.

The French seem to be quite patriotic, as the French car manufacturers have the biggest sales increase. Their sales are up 12 percent, about double the rate of their rivals. Most of the cars sold in the French auto market are low cost models built in countries where labour is cheap.

"Only flat note: if Renault's and Peugeot's factories are running more than at the end of 2008, the market remains driven by models constructed in low-cost countries," the newspaper wrote. This means that though car scrapping incentives gave an important boost to car sales, this did not translate into a boost of employment in France.

According to the carmakers’ association called the CCFA, car sales in France were up 7.6 percent in the first 11 months of 2009. The association also added that November brought a 48.4 percent increase in car sales.