Group from France is considered one of the easiest of the event, when it comes to cars the tastes are very different
Three-time champion France caught easy competitors for the first phase of the World Cup. It will face Senegal, Iraq and Norway in Group I. It is also the only one of these nations to have an automobile industry and the best-selling car is a national brand.
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The Renault Clio took the lead in the French market from the Peugeot 208 in 2023 and continues with this position. Although the brand still maintains a factory in France, the Clio has not been produced there since 2018, the current model is made in Turkey.
The new generation of the Renault Clio was very well accepted in Europe and is bothering a hegemony of the segment that was the Peugeot 208. It can come with a 1.2 turbo engine with a 48-volt mild hybrid system or with a full hybrid set that combines a 1.8 gasoline engine with an electric one.
Once again, the best-selling new car in an African country is the Toyota Hilux. The medium pickup is a global success precisely because of its reputation for being robust.
On a quick visit to the capital Dakar through Google Street View we can notice French cars are also common on the streets. Most taxis, at least at the time the photos were taken, are Peugeot 405s.
Today the car market in Iraq is more conventional, no longer depends on government agreement – like the one that took the Brazilian Passat there. The best-selling model in 2025 was the Kia K3, successor to the Rio.
The compact is sold as a hatch and sedan and adopts the same K3 platform that debuted in Brazil with the new i20. But the size is slightly larger than that of the compact produced in Brazil, with 2.67 m of wheelbase and even the option of a 2.0-liter aspirated engine.
Norway went viral a few years ago when the Tesla Model S became the country’s best-selling car. Today the model with the highest volume is another from the North American brand, the Model Y.
Norway is also one of the countries with the highest share of electric cars in the sales mix. The irony in this is that a considerable part of the local wealth came from oil.
