There must be something in the air around MotorMartin Towers at the moment as it seems like not a day goes by without news arriving up here on the top floor celebrating new dealerships and record sales, and yet still more arrives.
So it wasn’t really met with great surprise when more good news, this time regarding Renault UK, set the ticker tape flying across the news desk. Renault UK have informed MotorMartin that their car sales were up 15 per cent during the first nine months of 2016 to 68,109 vehicles, the best first nine months for the brand since 2010 and considerably outpacing the car market growth of 2.5 per cent, according to the official figures released today from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). Impressive indeed.
Renault have explained to MotorMartin that this performance represents a year-to-date car market share of 3.6 per cent, an increase of 0.4 percentage points against the same period in 2015 and that sales of 17,272 cars in the month of September shows an increase of 14 per cent on September 2015 and is the brand’s best sales result in the month since 2007.
And with the company investing successfully in alternative fuels and in an ever-growing electric vehicle market, sales of Renault’s electric vehicle range, comprising of ZOE, Twizy and Kangoo Z.E., rose by 25 per cent in the first nine months of 2016, with 1,648 EVs sold. ZOE contributed strongly to this performance, with 1,482 examples of the all-electric supermini being sold – a 33 per cent increase on the first three quarters of 2015 – continuing the trend set in Europe where Renault was the best-selling electric vehicle manufacturer in 2015.
Groupe Renault, which comprises Renault cars, vans and Dacia, is rightly proud to have experienced unprecedented growth over the last three years, consistently outpacing the UK market. This growth has continued into 2016 with 108,707 Group vehicles being sold year-to-date for a market share of 4.4 per cent – up 11.8 per cent and almost double that of the total market growth rate of 2.5 per cent. Of that total, Renault cars represented 68,109 vehicles (up 15 per cent), Renault vans 19,625vehicles (up 11.3 per cent) and Dacia 20,921 vehicles (up 2.6 per cent).
Commenting on the results, Paul Flanagan, Managing Director, Groupe Renault UK and Ireland, shared with MotorMartin that: “To achieve such a fantastic result in the month of September is remarkable and proves that, as the youngest range in Europe, our vehicles are genuinely standing out to buyers amongst competitors. Renault UK has been breaking records throughout the first nine months of the year and I’m confident we will see that trend carry on into the final quarter of 2016, especially with the imminent arrival of All-New Scenic and Grand Scenic as well as an updated ZOE that now offers a longer range than any other mainstream electric vehicle.”
There you have it then, with Renault continuing to design and manufacture cars that really have hit the mark with the UK car buying public, these newly released figures certainly appear to back up Renault’s ideas of what constitutes the perfect car for our green and pleasant land.
Where will you go?