Renault lends €200m to Irish motorists over four years

Renault has lent more than €200 million to 12,000 Irish motorists over the last four years through its finance arm.

The French car firm, which directly runs its Irish operations provides finance to Renault and Dacia buyers through group's bank Renault Credit International.

The details of its Irish lending comes after the banking arm confirmed it had passed the recent European Central Bank’s stress tests on Europe’s most important banking operations.

Renault Finance in Ireland operates through the car firm's 26 dealerships, which act as local branches. It opened for business in 2011 with three staff and has grown to 22 staff today, employed at its Dundrum headquarters.

It has joined Volkswagen Group's banking arm in spearheading the introduction of Personal Contract Plan (PCP) loans to Irish motorists. Similar to hire-purchase agreements these schemes were popular across Europe since the early 2000s but were relatively new to Irish motorists in 2011. Today it represents the financing structure for 40 per cent of Renault's retail sales.

Dacia, Renault Group's discount car brand has also benefitted from access to the car firm's banking arm. While the Dacia brand has only been on Irish forecourts fo the last two years, it has achieved a 2.3 per cent share of new passenger car sales and Dacia Finance has lent over €20 million to more than 1,500 Irish customers.