Renault Group have released its sales figures for the first half of the year. In an environment still disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, they sold 1,422,600 vehicles in the first half of 2021. This is up 18.7 percent on 2020 but down 24.2 percent on the first half of 2019, which is typical of the industry in general.
The interesting figure is that plug-in and electric vehicle (EV) sales have increased regardless of the pandemic. The E-TECH range has been a great success, with one in four Renault passenger cars sold in Europe. For Renault’s Arkana, one in two sales was an E-TECH version.
In Europe, the Renault brand sold 532,161 vehicles, a 13.2 percent increase, representing a market share of seven percent. This performance was driven by strong growth in sales of E-TECH electric and electrified passenger cars. These sold 91,869 vehicles, which is an impressive 149 percent increase.
Renault Group’s Dacia brand has also seen success over the last six months. Dacia’s sales were up 24.5 percent overall. The Dacia Spring electric sports utility vehicle (SUV), the brand’s affordable electric car, is off to a strong start too. It has more than 15,000 orders placed with deliveries scheduled for this autumn. This is a positive start and shows there’s a huge appetite for an affordable electric SUV.