- The Indian passenger car market was down 51.0% in March 2020 from March 2019, as India was hit by the coronavirus crisis arriving later than China.

- Over the 3-month cumulative period of 2020, the Indian market therefore fell by 22.1%, the worst result recorded for several years.

- Experts expect a slight improvement for April, which should register a volume of around 200,000 units.

- The manufacturers most affected in the first quarter of 2020 were Groupe FCA (-100%), Groupe VW (-64.0%), Honda (-59.7%), Mahindra (-51.6%), Ford (- 51.1%), Renault-Nissan (-46.3%), Tata Motors (-34.1%) and Hyundai-Kia (-30.0%).

- Manufacturers Toyota and Suzuki limited the drop in sales to -20.3% and -11.8% respectively, which means that these two manufacturers increased their market share in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the first quarter of 2019 .

- However, Suzuki traditionally holds more than half of the Indian market. In 2020, its market share reached two thirds of the Indian market, which is a record market share for this manufacturer.

- As if the clientele had massively gone for the purchase of vehicles belonging to the market leader, which gives a spectacular result, because the Indian market has never been so concentrated since the 1970s.

- In a recent analysis, Inovev predicted a 15% to 45% decline in the European market in 2020, given the coronavirus crisis that caused the temporary closure of factories and car dealerships, and given a demand that will not may not immediately return to pre-crisis levels. The post-crisis may indeed be handicapped by the drop in purchasing power of potential customers, resulting from technical or partial unemployment, the prolonged closure of certain businesses, the cessation of activity in certain sectors, the decline in revenues of certain companies and the lack of confidence in the future, the purchase of an automobile is not considered a priority purchase or a necessity.

- On the other hand, we can put forward the possibility of partially catching up on purchases of banned cars for one or two months of the year, or even of a desire to flee public transport to focus on individual transport. small and why not electric, like the Citroën AMI, by betting on a long-term rental purchase.

- Under these conditions, it is very difficult to predict what will be the post-crisis, because contradictory elements will collide and we are not sure that the coronavirus crisis will not come back in the second half of 2020 or not.

- Already, some manufacturers have announced the next reopening of their factories in Europe.

- Globally, Inovev expects a 25% drop in sales and production over the whole year, representing a volume of 56 million passenger cars, compared to 75 million in 2019, 79 million in 2018 and 81 million in 2017.

- The global automotive market for passenger cars declined 40.8% in March 2020, compared with March 2019, and 28.3% in the quarter. For its part, the global automotive market for commercial vehicles declined by 35.1% in March 2020, compared to March 2019, and by 16.6% in the quarter.

- Overall, the global automotive market for passenger cars and utility vehicles declined 39.2% in March 2020, compared with March 2019, and 25.0% in the quarter.

- This collapse is the largest observed since the end of the Second World War.

- The decline in the markets was general, since all the countries saw the volume of their registrations fall sharply, except Turkey (+ 44.8%) which had collapsed in recent years and which effected a partial catch-up.

- Over the quarter, China declined 45.4%, Europe 26.3%, the United States 11.1% and Japan 10.0%. These four main markets saw their market collapse at different times, since the coronavirus crisis started in China, then moved to Europe, then to the United States, and finally to Japan, reached in latest.

- Over the same period, we note Russia at -2.8%, Korea at -8.3%, Brazil at -9.2%, Mexico at -10.6%, Australia at -12.0 %, South Africa at -12.9%, Canada at -19.1%, India at -22.1% and Argentina at -38.3%.

- Arriving in China in 2016, well after its main competitors, Renault had negotiated an agreement with Dongfeng to manufacture in Wuhan and market SUVs in the country, namely the Captur, Kadjar and Koléos. The objectives were ambitious since the two partners were talking about a sales volume of 550,000 units in 2022, or one third of the volume of Nissan recorded at the same time. To achieve this objective, Dongfeng provided Renault with a JV factory capable of manufacturing 300,000 cars per year in Wuhan, a capacity which was expected to be doubled in 2020. Renault, for its part, planned to install 400 points of sale in the region. 'interval (only a hundred has emerged).

- Renault sales could never exceed 9,000 units per month (this level was reached at the end of 2017), or 74,730 units over the whole of 2017 (compared to 32,835 units in 2016). In 2018, sales fell to 47,769 units and in 2019 they collapsed to 16,603 units. In the first quarter of 2020, sales fell again by 55%. The logical decision to withdraw the Renault brand from the Chinese market was therefore taken in April 2020.

- However, Renault considers that it can still be present in the category of electric cars (under the Nissan brand) and utilities (under the Jinbei-Huasong brands) but there is very little chance that it will be able to prevail on this market, given the numerous and better armed competition. In 2019, Renault sold 157,625 commercial vehicles under the Jinbei-Huasong brands, and 3,207 K-ZE electric cars.