at the Paris Motor Show, the electric car market in the spotlight, despite a complicated context

New Renaults and Citroëns facing BYD and Leapmotor: the Paris Motor Show opens in Paris with new electric products supposed to revive the European market, under Chinese threat, while the sector is in full slowdown.

Renault, Peugeot, Volkswagen, Tesla, Cadillac and even the Chinese BYD and XPeng… Around fifty manufacturers will be present at the Paris Motor Show, which opens to the public on Tuesday October 15, at the Porte de Exhibition Center. Versailles. Until Sunday, automobile companies will deploy their stands to present their new models or technological advances.

But behind the facade smiles, it’s more of a soup of grimaces, at least for French and European manufacturers. Because the electric market is experiencing real failures within the European Union with barely 12% of new car registrations recorded over the first 9 months of the year, less than in 2023.

The fault, among other things, is the plunge in the German market after the end of purchase bonuses decided by the government of Olaf Scholz last December. France is certainly doing a little better: 17% market share over the same period for electric models, and almost 25% including plug-in hybrids.

But this remains insufficient as manufacturers have embarked on the all-out electrification of their range, anticipating the ban on the sale of new models with thermal engines in 2035. Stellantis has thus promised the launch of only electric models from 2026 in Europe. Renault is preparing to present an electric Renault 4 E-Tech at the Paris Motor Show, after having launched the Mégane, the Scénic, and the R5, and before the Twingo, promised in two years.

Despite this slowdown in sales of electric cars, the manufacturers’ objectives are not called into question. “We can no longer go back”sum up in chorus the various representatives of the auto sector, not only manufacturers but also equipment manufacturers.

France is also becoming an electric hub of sorts in Europe, with the objective set by Emmanuel Macron of producing 2 million electrified vehicles per year by 2030. The diamond firm is already highlighting the R5 or the Mégane, manufactured in Douai, even if the batteries are produced by its Asian partner Envision.

Stellantis, for its part, has invested some 200 million euros in Sochaux alone, the historic site of the Peugeot brand, to produce its e-3008 and e-5008 SUVs there, with the first batteries there. “made in France“, estimated between 3 to 4,000 this year, supplied by the ACC gigafactory in Douvrin, in the North, a joint venture created with Mercedes and TotalEnergies. Its managers have had to revise their outlook downwards, but hope for an increase in pace from next year, while also awaiting the completion of the projects of the French Verkor and the Taiwanese ProLogium in Dunkirk.

The players are therefore calling for a real support policy at the European level and not overly dramatizing Chinese competition, mainly in electricity, which today only represents around 6% of sales within the EU.