The Renault Group has upgraded its profit expectations for 2022 despite suffering H1 losses due to a writedown of its car manufacturing operations in Russia.

The French carmaker reported a €1.36 billion (£1.14bn) net loss for the period following a €2.2bn (£1.85bn) writedown on the value of its Russian operations which included the sale of its majority stake in the country’s biggest vehicle producer AvtoVAZ for an amount reported to be one ruble.

But as vehicle sales declined by nearly 30% to around one million units new models and better pricing improve profitability resulted in operating margins of 4.7% - up 2.6ppts year-on-year.

The improvement has prompted the Renault Group to upgrade its full-year margin forecast from 3% to more than 5%.

Group chief executive Luca de Meo said the improving margins showed that its 'Renaulution' growth strategy was delivering results ahead of schedule.