The Renault Group - which includes Renault itself, Dacia, and Alpine - saw significant growth in the first half of 2024 in a rather flat European car market.
How’s Renault doing, then?
Taking the group as a whole, sales are up by 6.7 per cent in a total European market that only rose by 5.5 per cent across the board. Across all three brands, 1,154,700 new cars were sold globally, with 847,623 of those in Europe.
Sales of Renault-branded cars made up 535,238, making Renault the number three brand in Europe and the number one in France. A significant driver of those sales was growth in the E-Tech Hybrid models, which saw their sales increase by 45 per cent. Renault is also doing well in van sales, with a 19 per cent rise.
What about Dacia?
Dacia is doing extremely well, thank you. 309,816 new Dacias were sold in Europe, and 358,497 worldwide, a rise of four per cent on the same period in 2023 for European sales, and that’s without the full effect of the new Duster, the new Spring, and the incoming new Bigster.
And Alpine?
Alpine saw 2,569 sales of the A110 sports car, which doesn’t sound like much, but it’s actually a 47 per cent increase on 2023’s numbers, proving that there is at least some small market out there for a true driver’s car. Expect to see bigger numbers by far from Alpine in the coming years as it launches its bigger electric passenger models, starting with the incoming new A290, the Alpine-ised version of the Renault 5 electric hatchback.
Not reliant on fleet sales
Interestingly, Renault isn’t hanging its sales hat too heavily on discounted fleet and company car sales - some 62 per cent of the group’s sales are to retail customers, which Renault reckons is some 20 points above average. Four of the group’s vehicles, led by the Dacia Sandero, are in the top ten selling retail customer (that’s private buyers, paying their own cash) sales.
Interestingly, Renault is also growing in the larger car market, above the C-segment (think Megane and similarly-sized cars), thanks to strong sales of the Austral and Espace SUVs. That ought to improve further for Renault now that the new all-electric Scenic is on sale alongside the SUV-coupe Rafale. The more expensive versions of those cars are selling well, too, with more than half of all Espace customers going for an Iconic or Esprit Alpine model.
Hybrids and electric on the rise
According to Renault’s numbers, half of all the cars it now sells have some bit of electric power, whether they’re hybrids or fully electric. Renault is Europe's number two brand in the hybrid passenger car rankings, with Clio, Austral and Captur in the top ten. In terms of electric cars, 12 per cent of all Renault sales are now fully electric, and that’s expected to grow significantly thanks to the 5 EV and the Scenic. Even Dacia is doing well in the electrified stakes, with ten per cent of its sales now being hybrid models, mostly made up of the Jogger Hybrid. Again, that should increase now that the new Spring is on sale, and the hybrid version of the new Duster is imminent.
What’s next?
Renault still has a busy year ahead of it. The new mid-size Symbioz crossover is set to launch shortly, as is the all-important Renault 5 EV (and its Alpine A290 brother), plus the new Master van. Globally, there will also be Renault-badged versions of the Dacia Duster for some markets, as well as other ‘outside Europe’ models such as the Grand Koleos and the Kardian.