French carmaker Renault saw sales fall 2.7% to €10.256 billion in the first three months of the year as customers put off buying cars until the launch of new models.
A company official said the decline was because customers were waiting for the launch of 26 new models by 2009. The fall came despite a 26.9% jump in sales of its no-frills Logan model.
A new compact Twingo and a luxury Laguna model are due later this year and a new version of the high-volume Megane is due out in June.
Yesterday, domestic rival PSA Peugeot Citroen said its sales in the quarter rose 6.5% to €14.87 billion euros.
The company said it was on track to meet its profit targets, which include a 3% operating margin for 2007 after it fell to 2.56% in 2006, and added the sales decline was in line with its expectations.
