PARIS (Dispatches) - Hopes for a strong rebound by the French car market have been shattered amid the global deficit of semiconductor chips, and increasing coronavirus infections, the French association of carmakers CCFA-PFA said on Sunday.
The lobbying body had expected car sales to increase by up to 10%, but those projections could be toned down, according to a spokesperson for CCFA.
“We think it might be difficult to achieve 1.8 million of sales this year,” the spokesperson said, as quoted by Reuters.
In 2020, registrations of new French passenger cars dropped to 1.65 million from some 2.21 million recorded in the previous year. The drastic decline is attributed to the pandemic, which brought car factories to a halt.