PARIS, April 23 (Reuters) - French automaker Renault on Thursday said first-quarter sales rose 7.3% from a year earlier, well above expectations, as a jump in sales to partners including Nissan <7201.TO> and China's Geely more than offset a disruption in production for its low-cost Dacia brand.
Sales of 12.53 billion euros ($14.66 billion) came in much higher than an expected 0.1% increase to 11.69 billion euros in a company-provided consensus.
This was driven by a sharp increase in sales to partners,
including its production of the Nissan Micra and its distribution of vehicles for Geely in Brazil, contributing 5.9 percentage points to growth. That helped its core automotive business revenue to rise 6.5% to 10.8 billion euros.
The company also benefited from its new Clio 6, which is being sold at a higher price than the previous generation.
However, the group's sales volumes fell, impacted by the closure of the Strait of Gibraltar to maritime shipping at the beginning of the year because of severe weather, which hampered the supply of parts to the company’s plant in Morocco, as well as the shipment of finished vehicles from the site.
Sales of the Dacia brand fell by 16.3% during the period, while those of the Renault brand rose by 2.2%.
Renault also said it would undertake additional measures to mitigate the impact of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran on raw materials, energy and logistics costs, though it did not provide further details.
The group confirmed 2026 targets, including an operating margin of around 5.5%, down from 6.3% in 2025, and automotive free cash flow of about 1 billion euros, compared with 1.47 billion euros a year earlier.
($1 = 0.8548 euros)
(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume and Dominique Patton; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)
