With a successive harvest in December, French car market posted over a yearly increase of 10 percent compared to 2008, the French Car Makers Association (CCFA) announced Monday.
Thanks to the government's year-long stimulus measures such as car trade-in bonus, French car market grew by 10.7 percent through 2009, with
over 2.26 million new cars registered by December, hitting a record high since 1990.
The sales of new passenger cars in France reached 228,451 in the last month of 2009, increasing 48.6 percent year-on-year, another successive growth close to 50 percent after a 48.4-percent increase in November on yearly basis.
With 116,947 new cars sold, French brands, leading by Citroen, Peugeot and Renault, posted gains by 56.3 percent compared to December 2008 when the industry was heavily hit by outstretching financial crisis.
On 12-month basis, the sales of French homegrown cars grew 13 percent, taking a market share of 53.9 percent, while the foreign makers shared the benefit by raising 8.1-percent sales compared to 2008.
CCFA pointed out the last quarter of 2009 witnessed the biggest boom of car market. By the end of 2009, consumers inspired by governmental stimulus rushed to grasp the last chance of 1,000- euro car trade-in bonus which shrank to 700 euros on Jan. 1 and will be lowered again to 500 euros in
July.
Local analysts estimated that French car market would decline by 8 percent in 2010 as the decrease of car bonus goes further.