The French automotive group recorded nearly 35% decline in sales over the first six months of the year, due to the coronavirus crisis.
The city car Zoe has established itself as the best-selling electric car in the first half of Europe (archives).
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French automaker Renault saw global sales drop 34.9% in the first half to 1.257 million vehicles due to the pandemic, he said on Monday, while noting “a commercial recovery in June”.
Over the first six months of the year, the group (which also includes the Dacia, Lada, Alpine and Samsung Motors brands) did worse than the world market – down 28.3% -, a situation that the manufacturer explains, in a press release, by “its high exposure to countries having undergone strict containment”.
Like all of its competitors, Renault had been forced to suspend its commercial and industrial activities in most countries of the world from mid-March before a gradual recovery from May.
However, it resisted better than its compatriot and rival PSA (Peugeot, Citroën), whose sales were almost halved in the first half (-45.7%, to 1.033 million vehicles).
PSA and Renault are due to publish their financial results for the first half of the year on July 28 and 30 respectively.
Internationalization of sales
The diamond group benefits from the strong internationalization of its sales, however. More than one in two vehicles (50.4%) were sold outside Europe from January to June, compared to 44.5% in the first half of last year.
In a European market down 38.9%, Renault saw its sales fall by 41.8%. This underperformance can be explained above all by that of the Romanian low-cost subsidiary Dacia (-48.1%), particularly affected “by its exposure to the private customer market”, much more affected by the crisis than that of companies.
However, the group takes advantage of its presence in Russia, its second market after France, where its sales fell by “only” 19.5%. Its market share increased by 1.4 points to 30.2%, thanks to its local brand Lada.
In India, sales fell 28.7% in a market that collapsed 49.4%.
In China, where Renault remains a marginal player and where it is refocusing on commercial vehicles and electric vehicles, volumes fell by 21.2%, roughly at the same rate as the entire market.
In Brazil, they fell 46.9%, in a market down 39%.
At the end of June, in Europe, the group’s order book was “more than 20% higher than last year” and stocks “more than 10% lower than June 2019. This gives us good visibility for our activity in the third quarter, ”said Denis le Vot, group sales director, during an audio conference with journalists.
The electric box
Among the good news, Renault welcomes the jump in sales of electric vehicles (+ 38%, to more than 42,000 vehicles over six months), a market in which it has been a pioneer and which is currently boosted by plans recovery in Europe. “Our electric offensive is working well,” rejoiced Denis le Vot.
The city car Zoe established itself as the best-selling electric car in the first half of Europe where the Renault group claimed the top rank of manufacturers for these engines with 18.1% market share.
The arrival of the small electric Twingo and the launch by the end of the year of the first Dacia electric model, as well as the ramp-up of the new hybrid and plug-in hybrid models, make the group confident of respecting European standards highly hardened CO2 emissions in 2020.
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