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December’s auto market saw plugin EVs at 34.4% share in France, up from 23.5% year on year. Full year 2025 saw EVs at 26.7% share, up slightly from 25.4% YoY, and let down by shrinking PHEV share. Overall December auto volume was 172,927 units, down some 6% YoY. Full year 2025 auto volume was 1,631,862 units, down 5% from 2024. The Renault 5 was France’s best-selling BEV in December, and also for full year 2025.
December saw combined EVs at 34.4% share in France, with full battery electrics (BEVs) at 24.4% and plugin hybrids (PHEVs) at 10.0%. These compare with YoY figures of 29.6% combined, 16.1% BEV and 13.5% PHEV.
Full year 2025 plugin share was 26.7%, up from 25.4% in 2024. BEVs grew modestly from 16.9% to 20.0% YoY. Though, PHEVs fell to 6.7% from 8.5%, putting a drag on the combined share. Even so, for BEVs to gain an additional market share of just 3.1% in 2025 — despite now having several available BEV models priced in the range 20,000€ to 25,000€, and with support from the social leasing programme — is unimpressive.
It would be tempting to blame Tesla’s plummeting sales — from 40,159 units in 2024, down to 25,335 in 2025 — but this drop only made a ~0.75% difference to BEV share.
Best-Selling BEV Models
In December, the Renault 5 saw record volumes, with 6,426 units delivered. The Peugeot 208 and 2008 took the second and third spots.
Over Q4 2025, the Renault 5 also maintained a strong lead, matching the total of the next three models combined:
Across full year 2025, the Renault 5 also finished in the lead, with around twice the volume of the runner up Tesla Model Y (2024’s leader). The Model Y’s volume fell by around a third YoY:
Outlook
Europe’s legacy automakers, including France’s Renault Group and Stellantis, will continue to slow-walk the EV transition as long as they are protected from competition by placing market barriers up against affordable Chinese BEVs being offered to consumers on a level playing field. Their slow-walk is not because legacy auto manufacturers are unable to make decent BEVs at somewhat attractive prices. It is because they still make more profit for directors and shareholders from continuing to sell their polluting ICE vehicles.
What are your thoughts on France’s score card in 2025 and the outlook for 2026? Please let us know in the comments.
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