The price of new cars has been rising steadily for several years, with the current crisis context not helping. Indeed, the average selling price of new vehicles has increased by nearly 18% over the last 12 months, according to Les Echos. Buyers follow as best they can: the average amount spent by the French on the purchase of their car, new or used, would have evolved twice as fast as inflation since 2001.
Regarding the recent increase in selling prices, many justifications are put forward by producers. In particular, the explosion in the price of raw materials, linked among other things to the pandemic, then to the war in Ukraine. Another explanation for this surge in prices would be the shortage of chips and semiconductors, which would have led manufacturers to concentrate the available chips in the production of vehicles with the highest returns, which are therefore the most expensive.
The automotive giant Peugeot has indeed announced on Wednesday, November 2, yet another increase in the price of some of its models, according to L’Argus. The most affected vehicles are electric and plug-in hybrid models. Some manufacturers have not had a soft hand: some have seen up to 4 increases in the space of just one year!
At Peugeot, the last price increases only date from last April. The company explains these repeated increases by the famous chip crisis, but also by the vertiginous increase in energy prices, which logically leads to an increase in the cost of production. In addition to the reassessment of its prices, Peugeot is saving money by removing certain standard equipment and certain finishes from its offer.
Find below the 6 Peugeot models which saw their price increase last Wednesday.