Renault has said global sales in the first six months of 2012 fell 3.3% year-on-year to 1.33 million vehicles.
The fall is mainly due to poor business in Europe.
The French automaker said in a statement that sales in its international automobile division grew 14.3% but could not make up for a 14.9% slide in Europe.
The company notched up record sales world-wide in 2011 at 2.72 million.
It hoped for better figures in the second half but "overtaking the 2011 sales will ... depend on the evolution of the global economic environment and the state of Europe's financial health," sales director Jerome Stoll said.
Sales outside Europe now account for 47% of the total, the number two French auto manufacturer said, against 39% in the first half of 2011.
Like its French rival PSA Peugeot Citroen, Renault was hit hard by the end of government scrappage schemes that saved the European auto market after the global financial crisis of 2008.
