New cars: the French mostly buy automatic gearboxes – BFMTV

54% of new vehicles sold since the start of the year in France were equipped with automatic gearboxes, nearly 7 times more than 10 years ago.

Motorists will soon no longer know what it looks like. The gear lever, which has shaken many license applicants for decades, is idling. As revealed by RTL on Wednesday, 54%, ie the majority of new vehicles registered in France since the beginning of the year, are equipped with an automatic gearbox and the like, and no longer with a manual gearbox. A first.

54% of automatic boxes and similar

In detail, between January and August, 40% of new vehicles were equipped with an automatic gearbox, according to figures provided by AAA Data, our partner specializing in automotive data. Almost 14% of vehicles had only mechanical or electric variable speed drives, elements that replace the good old gearbox, especially on hybrid and electric models.

For the driver, whether his vehicle is equipped with an automatic gearbox or a variator, this does not change anything: he selects the “Drive” mode and can, as desired, press the accelerator or the brake to modulate its speed. Unlike the 46% of motorists who still buy “mecha” gearboxes and have to use the clutch pedal.

A larger offer, less expensive boxes

This craze for automatics is nothing new. In 2019, 35% of new vehicles were sold with an automatic gearbox against only 8.9% in 2010. A figure which had risen to 37% in 2020. The automatic gearbox was thus democratized first via premium models then on top-of-the-range generalist models and now on the rest of their ranges. Dacia offers a CVT gearbox on its Sandero for example. The boom in long-term rental has also smoothed out the often higher cost of automatic gearboxes.

Trying it is often adopting it, especially for drivers in large congested cities. The new gearboxes have in fact swept away the preconceived ideas about the automatic, born in the 80s with gearboxes with many faults.

“Customers have also realized that these new boxes do not necessarily consume more”, explained to us last year François Roudier, spokesperson for the Platform of the automotive industry.

The electric boom

Since last year, the offer of models in automatic gearbox has been further strengthened with “the dynamism of sales of electric and hybrid cars”, explains a spokesperson for AAA Data. Models almost exclusively equipped with automatic gearboxes or variators. One in four vehicles sold in France between January and August was a hybrid model, to which is added 8% 100% electric vehicles.

A final trend could have contributed to this boom in auto boxes: the shortage of chips, even if it is difficult to precisely quantify its influence. This shortage has led manufacturers to favor the most profitable models and therefore the best equipped, often those equipped with automatic gearboxes (even if the latter also require semiconductors).