Renault: Russia exit contributes to sharp drop in sales

It must have been a shock for Renault’s administrative department when it added up the sales figures for the past six months. While Groupe Renault sold 1,422,647 cars as a whole last year in the same period, this year there were 1,000,199. Renault also shows in the figures how the group performed in the first half of 2021 without Russian sales, but even beyond that figure, the sales decline for the entire group this year amounts to 12 percent. For the Renault brand, the sales decline in the first half of 2022 is 16.9 percent, with 691,435 units sold compared to sales of 831,726 in the same period in 2021.

Renault cites the current supply chain problem as the reason for the drop in sales, with the shortage of microchips in particular throwing a spanner in the works. The manufacturer does indicate that the order books are well filled. For example, there are 20,000 Meganes E-Tech Electric on order and the Dacia Spring is also doing well with an average number of orders of 5,000 per month in the first half of 2022. More than 50,000 customers signed up for the Dacia Jogger during the past six months.

Dacia and Alpine in the plus

Is it all doom and gloom at Renault then? Luckily not. With 277,885 cars sold in the past six months, Dacia recorded a plus of 5.9 percent compared to the first half of 2021. Alpine’s sales figure is also impressive, with an increase of no less than 70.8 percent, although the 1,710 units sold do not mean very much in the total sales figure of Renault. Sales of EVs and hybrids also increased in percentage terms. Last year that share was 26 percent in the first six months, this year it was 36 percent. Unfortunately, Renault lumps all-electric vehicles and hybrids together, so how Renault performs in the EV field cannot be deduced from this percentage.