For this year, Renault SA improved its outlook for the global and European car markets, attributing the boost of its first-half sales and market share to new product launches. Renault also predicts that the European car market will drop between 7% and 9% this year, instead of its previous forecast of a 10% decrease The group also forecast an 8% climb in the world car market due to the growth in the emerging markets. Carmakers that posted gains due to government scrapping incentive schemes worry about the second half of this year in mature markets, when most schemes have terminated. To offset this, carmakers are turning their focus on regions such as China and Brazil. Renault also recorded a 21.6% increase in the first half for its global sales of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, to 1,347,169 units. This resulted to a market share of 3.9%, up by 0.2 point compared with the same period a year ago. Meanwhile, Renault’s European sales went up by 21.6%, and the group had a 10.8% market share, an improvement of 1.8 points. The group also believes that for the second half of the year, there would be a divergence between the European market and the other parts of the world.
