French carmaker Renault said its worldwide group sales had fallen for the third year in a row in 2021, due notably to problems over chips supplies.

Renault said sales of passenger cars and light vehicles fell 4.5% to 2,696,401 units last year.

Sales of the Renault brand were down 5.3% although sales of the Dacia brand increased by 3.1%, and Lada's sales progressed by 0.3%.

Renault, which along with its global peers is pushing into electric vehicles under Chief Executive Luca de Meo, said it was pursuing the sales policy initiated in the third quarter of 2020, which is leading to an increase in the share of its sales in the most profitable channels.

Renault said that in its five main European countries – France, Germany, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom - the share of sales to retail customers now represented 58%, up 6 points compared to 2019, before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.