Peugeot: Falling Demand on the Hungarian Car Market

The main challenge for players in the Hungarian new car market since the end of last year is no longer a shortage of production capacity, but a decline in demand, Peugeot's brand director, Zsófia Bálint told MTI.

She recalled that a year ago, sales were still constrained by a shortage of spare parts, and the brand could have had a "great" year if production had kept pace with orders. Nevertheless, Peugeot performed well, she noted, with global sales down 3.7% and European sales down 4.6%.

She said that in Hungary, the brand's share improved slightly in 2022, with Peugeot's sales down 10.7% on a 10.87% contraction in the overall market.

Peugeot dealers in Hungary sold 3,167 vehicles last year, giving the brand a 2.45% share of the new car market. Trucks accounted for 32% of sales, a segment down 22%, while the overall market fell 23.2% last year.

80% of the brand's customers are fleet buyers, and Zsófia Bálint believes this share could even increase as private customers increasingly disappear from the market. She pointed out that economic uncertainty as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian war has damaged interest in buying vehicles on several fronts: the public's purchasing power has weakened due to inflation, fuel prices have risen, car prices have gone up by 30-40%, while financing options have deteriorated dramatically.