Unfortunately for the French group, that increase was achieved only as a result of Chinese brands Jinbei and Huasong becoming part of the company in January last year. If we take them out of the equation, as there's nothing to compare their contribution to in 2017, the group posted a 1.2 percent decrease.
The negative result is largely the fault of the main brand Renault, which scored a 5.2 percent drop in sales to 2,532,567 vehicles. Samsung, its South Korean brand, also dropped 14.9 percent to 84,954 vehicles.
The top performers of the group were last year East European and Russian brands, Dacia and Lada. The former posted a 7 percent hike to 700,798 vehicles while the latter jumped 18.7 percent to 398,282 units.
"The Group's sales growth in Russia, Brazil, and Africa offset almost all of the economic and geopolitical headwinds outside Europe,” said in a statement Olivier Murguet, Renault’s vice president of sales.
As for its outlook for the current year, Renault bets on numbers being largely similar to those announced on Friday. Even so, the group “is aiming for a slight increase in sales in 2019, with an acceleration in the second half of the year.”
The increase will likely come at that time because that’s when several international models will be launched, including the carmaker’s top performer Clio.
The full sales results as announced by Renault can be found in the Press Release section below.
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