Renault Reports Record Annual Revenues

Renault has reported record annual revenues after a revamp of its range boosted sales.

The French automaker’s revenues rose 13.1% to 51.2 billion euros in 2016, slightly ahead of expectations, while net income jumped by nearly 20% to 3.54 billion euros.

Earlier this week, Renault said it had sold 3.2 million vehicles in 2016, a 13.4% rise on 2015, with market share rising in all regions.

Renault sales have now overtaken French rival Peugeot Citroen.

The company’s financial director Clotilde Delbos said 2016 had been “a very good year” for the automaker, and the company had hit all of its targets.

She told a news conference: “These objectives, in particular that of exceeding 50 billion euros in sales, have been achieved by 2016.”

Clotilde Delbos added that the results had been achieved despite markets such as Brazil and Russia that “count a lot for us and which were strong in the past” but were still at “lower levels than in the past”.

Renault said it expected the global car market to grow by between 1.5% and 2% in 2018, with sales in Europe and France up 2%.

The automaker forecasts the markets in Brazil and Russia will be “stable”, but expects 5% growth in China and the Indian market to expand by 8%.

Last month, French authorities said they would investigate Renault over suspected “cheating” in diesel emissions tests.

Paris prosecutors are to conduct a probe into “cheating on key parts” of vehicles and into the quality of the tests.

The move comes in response to concerns raised in 2016 by the French consumer protection agency, which carried out an investigation into several carmakers in the wake of VW scandal.