By Gilles Guillaume and Dominique Patton
PARIS, April 23 (Reuters) – French automaker Renault on Thursday said first-quarter sales rose 7.3% from a year earlier, well above expectations, as a jump in sales to partners including Nissan and China’s Geely more than offset a disruption in production for its low-cost Dacia brand.
Sales of 12.53 billion euros ($14.66 billion) came in much higher than an expected 0.1% increase to 11.69 billion euros in a company-provided consensus.
This was driven by a sharp increase in sales to partners, including its production of the Nissan Micra and its distribution of vehicles for Geely in Brazil, contributing 5.9 percentage points to growth. That helped its core automotive business revenue to rise 6.5% to 10.8 billion euros.
“It’s again a demonstration of the competitiveness of our offer, because there are partners who source from us to profit from the strong competitiveness of our cars,” finance chief Duncan Minto said on a call. “And we manage to do it with a differentiated design, so there is no cannibalisation between vehicles.”
The company also benefited from its new Clio 6, which is being sold at a higher price than the previous generation.
However, the group’s sales volumes fell, impacted by the closure of the Strait of Gibraltar to maritime shipping at the beginning of the year because of severe weather, which hampered the supply of parts to the company’s plant in Morocco, as well as the shipment of finished vehicles from the site.
Sales of the Dacia brand fell by 16.3% during the period, while those of the Renault brand rose by 2.2%.
Renault, the smallest of Europe’s legacy automakers, is at the beginning of a major sales push under new CEO Francois Provost, targeting sales of more than 2 million Renault-brand vehicles a year by 2030, up 23% from 2025. It is seeking to sell half of those outside Europe, including in India, where it is refreshing marketing efforts.
While the company is in better financial health than it was several years ago, competition is heating up, particularly from low-cost Chinese firms rolling out new models in its core European markets.
Renault said earlier this month it would cut up to 20% of its engineering staff over the next two years as it seeks to streamline operations and match lower Chinese development costs.
Renault also said on Thursday it would undertake additional measures to mitigate the impact of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran on raw materials, energy and logistics costs, though it did not provide further details.
The group confirmed 2026 targets, including an operating margin of around 5.5%, down from 6.3% in 2025, and automotive free cash flow of about 1 billion euros, compared with 1.47 billion euros a year earlier.
($1 = 0.8548 euros)
(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume and Dominique Patton; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
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