Renault-Nissan Alliance hat trick

Ghosn announces third consecutive year of record-breaking sales

Renault and Nissan jointly sold over eight million vehicles around the world last year. The figure — 8,029,222 to be precise — marked a 10.3 per cent gain on the previous year's figure.

In a press release issued last week, Renault-Nissan Alliance CEO, Carlos Ghosn (pictured) credited the US economy and growth in emerging markets for the 2011 global sales tally — a figure that included 2,722,062 Renaults and 4,669,981 Nissans, with the balance of 637,179 from AvtoVAZ Lada.

“The Alliance capitalized on the resurgence of the US economy and gained significant market share in the regions that will drive growth in the 21st century,” said Ghosn. “Double-digit sales growth is solid progress – particularly during a year in which we faced Japan’s earthquake and tsunami, the abnormal strength of the yen, and financial turmoil in Europe.”

Renault's sales for the year had risen by 3.6 per cent, year on year, with 43 per cent of that growth from outside its traditional market base in Europe, although one (non-traditional) European market for the French brand was Russia, where sales escalated by 60 per cent to 154,734, making Russia Renaults fastest growing market.

Brazil is now Renault's second largest market after France. The Latin American country —the 'B' in the bloc of emerging economies known as the BRIC nations — bought 194,300 Renaults, up 21 per cent on the previous year in a market that grew by three per cent overall. Across Europe Renault wa the number two brand, but Dacia (down 1.8 per cent) and Renault Samsung (losing 27 per cent) actually went backwards in sales during 2011, as a consequence of the Japanese tsunami in March, creating supply constraints.

China was the largest market for Nissan, achieving a new record of 1,247,738 units — 21.9 per cent better than the figure in 2010. Throughout North, Central and South America, Nissan's sales totalled 1,561,230 vehicles in 2011, an increase of 17.2 per cent. Sales growth in the region was strongest in the US, Mexico and Brazil. A 25.4 per cent increase in Europe resulted in sales for the brand of 695,703 and a 73.1 per cent spike in Russia amounted to nearly 60,000 extra sales in that country alone. The fly in the ointment for Nissan was its home market, Japan, where sales were down 8.4 per cent. That was in a market that contracted 15 per cent overall.

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