Brazilian performance pushes Renault internationals profit 8.3% up
DCI - 05/19/2008
Renault reached the figure of 228,146 sold vehicles in the world in April, 8.3% more than in the same period of last year. The increase in the sales is explained by the recovery in Europe, after the fall in the first quarter, and the growth of the emerging markets. Only in Brazil, Renault registered a record increase of 93% in sales, amounting to 11,798 licensed vehicles. In Europe, the maker had a good result in April, mainly in Germany, with an increase of 27%, above the figure related to the evolution of the market, which was 19.5%. Important advances were made in other dynamic markets, such as in the Netherlands (18.4%), Belgium (54.8%), Switzerland (26.2%), and Austria (14.9%). In the first four months of the year, the main markets for the automobile group, in absolute terms, were France (227,811 vehicles), Germany (59,070), Spain (54,266), Italy (49,508), the United Kingdom (48,733), Romania (36,546), Brazil (26,259), South Korea (26,222) and Russia (35,352). The expressive numbers in Brazil, mainly pushed by the expansion of credit facilities, took the French maker to the fifth position in the ranking of domestic sales. The growth is more than twice of the sector's that increased 45% in sales in April compared to the same month of 2007. In the four-month period, Renault accumulates, in the Country, sales of the nearly 36,730 units, a volume 79% above the volume obtained in the same period of last year (20,566 licensed vehicles). From January to April this year, the market share grew 1.1% compared to the same period of 2007, reaching the level of 4.3%. The maker's growth plan is based mainly in the launching of new models. Sandero, which started being sold in January/2008, is the main responsible for the record in April. 4,453 units were sold so far, and in the accumulated in the year, the model already has more than ten thousand licensed units.