With an average established at 10.6 years, the French car fleet is aging more and more, while the average age was 9 years in 2017.
The car fleet is aging, it is a fact. And this is not necessarily a good sign, although one might think that it is the consequence of an improvement in the reliability of recent vehicles. According to a two-year study by analysts atAAA Data, the average age of cars in circulation in France would indeed be 10.6 years, against nine years in 2017. Aging is all the more visible as the average was established at eight years in 2014 and only six years in 1990 According to the cabinet, all the regions would not be housed in the same boat, since the most affected would notably be the Lot and the Dordogne, with no less than 8% of the rolling stock having been registered before 1997.
An alarming finding, while these vehicles are now banned from most large cities because of a Crit’Air sticker not assigned to vehicles prior to this date. According to AAA Data, this increase in the average age of the vehicle fleet “ testifies to the inability of a large number of French people to change their car more frequently ». It must be said that the current situation does not really encourage renewal, while the penalty is increasingly severe and the bonus tends to decrease when purchasing electric vehicles. And this should not get better, as the National Assembly voted last year to ban the sale of thermal and hybrid cars in France in 2040, whether new or used. Associated with the rise in the price of fast recharging at Ionity stations, now as expensive as a full tank of fuel, it is normal that motorists prefer to keep their old car, especially if it still works very well.
SUVs are not in the majority
This study also tells us that, contrary to what one might think, SUV are not the most common vehicles on the market. They only represent 16% of the 39 million vehicles currently in circulation, while sedans occupy 58% of the fleet. In addition, AAA Data informs us, even if it is not really a surprise, that it is in the Hauts-de-Seine and in Paris that the greatest concentration of business vehicles is found. In fact, they occupy 32 and 26% of the total fleet respectively, while the national average is only 7.3%. Finally, it should be noted that it is in the North that there are the most cars in circulation, with a total of 1.4 million vehicles, followed by the Bouches du Rhône and the Gironde.
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