Car maker Dacia's global sales volume fell by 2.9 percent in the first half of the year, to 176,852 cars and light commercial vehicles, compared to  182,153 units sold in the same period last year, according to Renault’s financial results. Hoever, Dacia maintained 1.5 percent market share in Europe.

Sales of the Sandero model also fell by 52 percent, to 46,075 units, with the decline steeper in France. Conversely, on the passenger cars segment, Duster performed strongly, with 70,788 vehicles sold. This raised it to second place for sales of crossovers in Europe, with 12.6 percent market share in this category just one year after its launch, according to Renault’s results.

Dacia sales in Europe fell by 3.7 percent in the first half of this year, to 126,918 vehicles, while on the French market the decline was 21.6 percent, to 50,413 units.

Renault's sales worldwide increased by 1.9 percent in the first half, to 1.374 million cars, while the group's revenues rose by 7.3 percent, to EUR 21.1 billion.

See Renault’s financial results for the first half of 2011 here.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(photo source: Dacia)