The French manufacturer is returning to profitability, driven by sales to its partners and the dynamism of electric vehicles.
Renault came out of the red in the first half of 2026 and saw its turnover increase by almost 10%, above analysts’ expectations. This performance marks a return to profitability for the French automobile group, after a year 2025 marked by a heavy loss linked to the depreciation of its assets in Nissan.
Turnover for the first half jumped 9.5% to 30.25 billion euros. This result exceeds the consensus of FactSet analysts, who expected half-year turnover of 29.05 billion euros. This progression is supported by “a strongly positive effect of sales to partners” such as Mitsubishi and Nissan at the Douai factory (northern France), and a “slightly positive volume effect”, specified the group.
The rise of electricity and financing
In addition to sales to partners, growth in turnover also comes from the success of electric cars despite their higher production costs, Renault detailed, as well as an increase in financing activity for customers. In the first half, sales of electric vehicles increased by 47.6%, accounting for 18.6% of the group’s sales over the period, representing growth of 6.5 percentage points compared to the first six months of 2025.
Over the first six months of the year, the French car manufacturer ultimately generated a net profit of 705 million euros after a loss of 11.19 billion a year earlier linked to the depreciation of its assets in Nissan. Without taking into account this accounting cleaning operation, the manufacturer improved its profit: it stood at 461 million euros in the first half of 2025 adjusted for the Nissan impact.
Renault has confirmed its financial outlook for the year 2026, namely an operating margin “of around 5.5% of turnover” and automotive cash generation “of around 1 billion euros”.
