The lack of chips is reflected far more dramatically at Renault than was assumed in the summer. An estimated 500,000 cars will not roll off the assembly line as planned this year, the company announced on Friday. In July, around 200,000 vehicles were missing this year.
In the past few days, rumors of a significantly higher number have been circulating – eXXpress reported. In the third quarter alone, the carmaker’s production loss was around 170,000 vehicles. On the other hand, there is no shortage of orders. On the contrary: at the end of September the order book was as full as it had been in 15 years.
Renault sold 599,027 vehicles across all group brands from July to September. That is 22.3 percent less than in the same period of the previous year, due to the problems with missing parts. The car manufacturer was able to contain the slump in sales to 13.4 percent – the equivalent of 9 billion euros – partly because prices rose.
Under the new boss Luca de Meo, Renault has decided to focus less on quantity and instead focus on returns. The group also maintains the operating margin forecast for the year – it should be in the order of magnitude of the first six months, when it was 2.8 percent.
