World First Half 2017: Renault-Nissan becomes world’s largest carmaker

Renault Alaskan. Picture courtesy maciautos.com 

It’s official: mainly thanks to the addition of the Mitsubishi brand to an already crowded stable, the Renault-Nissan Alliance has become over the First Half of 2017 the largest carmaker in the world. The Renault Group has posted record sales over the period, up 10.4% to 1.879.000 units, Nissan Motor is up 5.6% to 2.894.488 and Mitsubishi up 2.4% to 494.303. At this stage, the Renault-Nissan Alliance includes the following brands: Renault, Dacia, Samsung and Lada for the Renault Group, Nissan, Infiniti, Venucia, Datsun and Mitsubishi For Nissan Motor.

Nissan Titan Warrior Concept 

Overall, the Renault-Nissan Alliance sold 5.268.079 cars over the first six months of 2017, up 7% year-on-year. This is more than any other automotive group in the world. The Volkswagen Group sold 5.155.600 units (+0.8%) while Toyota Motor sold 5.129.000 cars (+2.7%) and General Motors 4.7m cars. It’s the first time that the Renault-Nissan Alliance holds the worldwide top spot, having never ranked on the podium in any year prior (it was #4 in 2016). This historical result comes as Renault announced it had generated record operating profits €1.8bn over the period on revenues that are up 17% year-on-year to €29.5bn. The Financial Times quotes Carlos Ghosn, Renault chief executive, as saying: “These results are due to our product range renewal plan, our geographic expansion and the commitment of all our employees.”  The company’s operation in Russia, which had been heavily lossmaking, posted a profit of €3m for the six months.

Mitsubishi Outlander Datsun RediGOLada VestaInfiniti QX30Dacia SanderoSamsung SM6Venucia T90