France has not dropped its auto industry in crisis and has used good means to pass the air hole of the enclosure that has amplified the fall in sales due to the new malus 2020. In spite of this context, very complicated to understand for businesses, as for individuals, when defining a purchasing strategy, the market was held. The measures of government support to the automobile have managed to trigger a restart, welcomed on Wednesday the president of the automobile Platform (PFA), Luc Chatel, who represents the companies of the sector in France, but he warns that the crisis is not over.

"premiums have brought a breath of oxygen to the system, they have helped to re-start the factories, but the risks are before us," said Mr. Chatel, AFP, drawing a first balance sheet of the announcements made on 26 may by the president of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron.

To boost auto sales after the confinement, the government had strengthened the bonus to the purchase of electric vehicles and reinstated an aid to plug-in hybrids which were more. The premium to the conversion, for the scrapping of an old car, had been expanded to reach a wider audience.

"today, the automotive industry is at an activity rate close to 80 %," stressed the president of the PFA, which represents the 4,000 companies in the sector.

The automotive market, the French had collapsed in the spring, dropping from 72 % in march to 89 % in April, and again from 50 % in may, under the effect of containment to combat the pandemic of Covid-19. The distribution had been paralyzed and factories shut down, before a rebound starting in may.

" Is that the situation of the automobile is set to all ? Of course not, " said Mr. Chatel, referring to the financial losses posted in recent days by the companies in the sector. "There is a real risk of failure among the SMES of the sector at the heart of our territories ", he said, especially as " no one has the prognosis on the holding of the market in the fall ".

lone Rider French

within the european Union (EU), France has distinguished itself in the month of June by being the only country to see its new cars registered increase (+ 1,2 %), according to the Association des constructeurs européens d'automobile (ACEA). It is, therefore, that the remedy was the right one. The July figures will be published on Saturday morning. They should show a net increase, according to a source informed contacted by AFP.

On 20 July, the progress of registrations was 20 % and that of orders 30 %, even if the last days of the month are always crucial to set the trend. "We feared a settlement after the good month of June, but the returns in the field are encouraging ", commented the source.

This success is a result of the success of the premium to conversion, which amounted to almost a sale of five in June and that will be achieved in two months the maximum quota of 200 000 cars.

The national Council for professions de l'automobile (CNPA), which represents the businesses of distribution and services, has welcomed the announcement Saturday by the government of a new premium to the conversion from the 3 August to take the result of the crisis, while tightening the conditions of access to only households.

"This new device allows you to sustain demand in a complex period," said its president, Francis Bartholomew.

"The paradox is that this crisis helps us to accelerate the energy transition," commented Mr. Chatel, recalling the objective to multiply by five the number of electric vehicles in five years, in the framework of a contract of industry signed in 2018. "This trajectory is being achieved," he assured, stressing that carmakers in Europe have "invested hundreds of billions of euros" in the electrification.

The share of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid has reached 9.1 % of the registrations in France in the first half of 2020, as against 2.5 % last year over the same period, that is, a multiplication by almost four, according to the data of the Committee of French manufacturers of automobiles (CCFA). But subsidized at this level, that would be the sales of electric cars if the aid were to stop. And the "full" battery to raise what is now a trend on which we will not return. And the State has not yet put taxes on the electricity automobile to compensate for the shortfall from the drop in sales of fuels.