Welcome aboard.
Bienvenue à tous. Bienvenue aux résultats du S1 2022 du Groupe Renault. Cette présentation sera faite par Luca de Meo, Directeur Général du Groupe Renault, et Thierry Piéton, Directeur Financier, et sera suivie par une séance de questions-réponses. À vous la parole, Luca. Merci d'être, de participer à cette conférence. Je suis ravi de vous présenter nos résultats pour le premier semestre 2022. Il y a 5 mois, quand nous avons présenté nos résultats 2021, nous avons annoncé que Renault était revenu sur le devant de la scène.
Years in advance and above our 2023 guidance. We also suggested that Renault Group transformation was moving forward with substantial improvements on all fundamentals that made us confident in our ability to overcome future headwinds. That's what we said. We had a lot, of course, of headwinds in this last month. This is the outcome. In H1, our profitability reached 4.7%, up 2.6 points from H1 last year. We generated around EUR 1 billion of free cash flow. This is up EUR 1.5 billion. Since the end of last year, our net debt was reduced by EUR 1.2 billion, and this includes half a billion EUR from the deconsolidation of our Russian automotive operation. By June 30, our net debt amounted to only EUR 426 million.
This places at the 10-year high in terms of cash generation for the first semester. We also achieved our best margin on variable cost in Europe per unit in 10 years. We did that, as you know, in probably the worst environment in 15 years, electronic component crisis, supply disruptions, and cost inflation, with almost EUR 800 million of impact on raw materials. Of course, the conflict in Ukraine resulted in a very challenging situation for the group. We had to sell Renault Russia and AvtoVAZ. It was a difficult but necessary decision, and it didn't penalize, as you can see, the performance of the group.
Today's results confirm that we, with a much lighter and nimble organization that we've shaped in the last two years, we are now able to absorb even the most severe shocks, manage a volatile environment, and still accelerate the metamorphosis of the group, of the company. I think I can state today without blowing it up that Renaulution is a success. We are delivering three years in advance our commitments, and we're not here to rest on laurels, as we know that there is still room to catch up with our best competitors. Three levels of transformation allow us to get there. First one is our commercial policy focused on value. The second is the start of a product offensive enabling commercial successes, and third, the restoration of our competitiveness. Let's start with our go-to-market approach, placing value over volume.
It's working, and it will continue to work because we enter into a favorable product cycle, and because in the meantime, we went on optimizing our operations. We improve our product mix within the existing product offer. In Europe, for example, our electric and hybrid mix went through the roof. It moved from 4.5% in 2019 to 36% in H1, and it's still on the rise, winning 10 points in one year. What happened is clear. In 18 months, we have made it to replace diesel with hybrid cars, which was a big question mark for all European car makers only a few years ago. In addition, C-segment and above products now represent 40% of our passenger car sales worldwide. This is consistent with the ambition to align our mix with our competitors.
For the Renault brand, also in Europe, C-segment and above segments, sales rose by 10 points in two years, reaching 36%. As promised, we improved our channel mix. In H1, retail accounted for more than half of Renault brand's total sales in the big five countries and up 13 points from a year ago. Dacia confirms its number three position in Europe on the PC passenger car retail segment. In G5, so the big five markets, one individual customer out of six is choosing a car, a model of the Renault Group. All our new models show that customers and their launches show that the customers are willing to upgrade their selection with high-end versions making over 70% of the mix.
The bottom line, ladies and gentlemen, is that a net price improved by 7.4 points versus H1 2021. Compared with H1 2020, the improvement is around 18 points. The second level is product offer. We are starting to benefit from new important product introductions, and it will accelerate massively in the next month and years. Remember that when the crisis came, we were on a low point of our product life cycle. All new car launches that we have organized in the last two years were above our project expectation. Mégane E-Tech ranked number two at the Car of the Year contest. We already received over 25,000 orders, while it is just starting to appear in dealerships in Europe.
It's roughly 20% above our expectation, and over 80% of our customers go for the richest versions with large batteries. Arkana's success is steady. We received this year 40,000 orders. In total, we received more than 100,000 orders since its launch. The same is true for Dacia, the Dacia Spring. We received 33,000 orders this year. This is more than 5,000 orders per month, and all of this despite the shortages. For Dacia Jogger, in six months, we received more than 50,000 orders. That is 30% above our initial estimations. The next big thing will be the Austral. This C-SUV is on one of the most strategic segments with high volume and double margins, a segment where we were not existing basically in the previous generation.
The product has the most efficient hybrid engine in the world, with 44% of energy efficiency, 200 horsepower, and down to 103-104 g of CO2 per kilometer. This is 15 or 20 grams lower than the best of competition. Most importantly, Austral will provide an outstanding profitability. We expect this transaction price to be 25% above previous generation Kadjar. Let's finish with Alpine. The brand is, I would say, skyrocketing. Its registration rose by more than 70% after an already record year in 2021. I think the engagement in Formula One is proving to have an effect on awareness and desirability of the brands. We're touching a completely different customer profile of automotive enthusiasts.
Just as an example, for the 100-year anniversary of Alpine's legendary founder, Jean Rédélé, we presented online a limited edition of 100 pieces, obviously, at the price of around EUR 90,000. The 100 were booked with down payment in 34 seconds. Our group backlog now amounts to over 4 months of sales, which means that H2 is basically secured just with today's order book. Now let's see the other side of the equation, cost, productivity, and competitiveness. What happened here in terms of cost structure in the last 18 months is unprecedented at Renault. We lowered down our break-even point by over 40%, and we will continue despite the headwinds. Let me take an example by addressing upfront a potential question in the Q&A. How you guys are going to manage energy prices increase, and shortage?
Of course, we are closely monitoring the situation, but in the European Union, 95% of our production takes place in three countries where the dependence on Russian gas is significantly lower than the average. 20% in France, 18% in Romania, and 8% in Spain, against 45% for the EU on average. We achieved in our plants, on top, a 10% operational performance by unit compared to 2021. That's quite a lot when we talk about energy, approximately the annual consumption of two plants. Thanks to Industry 4.0, we will increase leverage data monitoring tools to further optimize industrial processes such as overheating or to better detect leaks. In September, we will unveil a plan to drastically improve our energy performance with best-in-class initiatives in the field of renewable energies.
We consider the ESG requirements linked to the decarbonization as a lever to improve competitiveness. In the last two years, we also decided to get rid of all unnecessary bricks and mortar in the company to create a real estate-light organization. We already reduced our footprint by 1 million square meters, Russia excluded, or 1.3 million, if you include it. This is equivalent to 93 football fields or a decrease of 8% everywhere in the company, from the plants to our own dealers to administrative buildings. By the end of the year, we will add another 165,000 square meters. When it comes to average stock, and therefore the working capital needed to run the business, we are already on another planet, and not because of the shortage of components.
Since 2020, for example, we reduced average vehicle stocks for us and for our dealers by 35%. On cash fixed cost, we are also much lighter. Already in October 2021, we had fulfilled our end of 2022 commitment. We are continuing to push on all our drivers, and this semester we did an additional EUR 100 million reduction, and this number excludes Russia. This is almost a 30% cut from 2019, putting us on a reasonable percentage level, even in times where turnover is limited by market demand and supply shortages. We are ready for the moment when the business will come back. If you allow me, beyond the numbers, the most important thing that we managed was a change of mindset of the people at Renault.
From the focus on the business, and on the customer generated, by a brand-driven organization to the discipline of engineering, the flexibility of our production people, the resilience of our buyers, the focus on value of our sales and marketing people, the thoroughness of our finance, and the obsession of our quality specialists. We promoted 250 people in new top management position. 50 of them from the outside are bringing new competencies and enrich our perspectives. 50% of these new recruits are women. We are very, every day more the, I would say, the spirit of the winning teams. We have the courage of, and the vitality of the survivors. As a leader of this organization, it is very pleasant to see.
After two years of sacrifices and a hard diet, we are now ready for the next chapter at Renault, a chapter where words like innovation, ambition, and continuous improvement, and metamorphosis will be at the center of our conversation. I will tell you more about it in a few minutes. Before that, I leave it to Thierry Piéton, who will present to you the financial results.
Well, thanks very much, Luca, and good morning, everyone. Before starting on the results, I'd like to give you a clear view of the impacts of our exit from Russia and provide you with some adjusted figures. The Russian automotive activities were deconsolidated in Renault Group's 2022 H1 results and treated as discontinued operations with retroactive effect on the first of January. The results of the discontinued operations are a loss of EUR 2.3 billion in H1, most of it coming from the impairment of goodwill and intangible assets in AvtoVAZ and Renault Russia. The financial aggregates of continuing operations for H1, therefore, no longer include the Russian automotive activities. As you can see, 2021 has been restated accordingly.
To give you a few figures, the impact on 2021 revenue is -EUR 2.3 billion for H1 and -EUR 4.5 billion for the full year. The impact on 2021 operating margin amounted to -EUR 222 million for H1 or -0.7 points, and -EUR 510 million on the full year or -0.8 points. Lastly, which Luca already mentioned, the net debt as of December 31, 2021 improved thanks to the deconsolidation by EUR 522 million, and thus amounted to -EUR 1.1 billion. Moving to volume, as a consequence of the exit from Russia, here, as in the rest of the presentation, the 2021 figures have been adjusted from Lada and Renault Russia sales.
In H1 overall, the market remains pretty tough, mainly due to the electronic component situation. In this environment, the group registered 1 million units, an 11.9% decrease in H1 versus H1 of 2021. Renault Brand sold 692,000 vehicles, down 16.8%, mostly driven by the electronic component situation. However, we continue to focus on the most profitable channels, and as an example, in the top five European countries, Renault Brand significantly outperformed the retail market, with the market share increasing by 0.8 points. Dacia, which is less exposed to the most affected suppliers and benefiting from its value for money positioning, continued its growth and was up 5.9% at 278,000 units.
Alpine's activity, as mentioned by Luca, supported by the launch of the new range around the successful A110 and the expansion of its network rose by 71%. As you will see in the following slides, the group's operational performance already mentioned by Luca translated into financial figures that more than offset the overall volume decrease. On slide number 12, we show the revenue contribution by activity. Group revenue, despite the decrease of 11.9% in volume, was up 0.3% compared to H1 of 2021 at EUR 21.1 billion. At constant exchange rate, it increased by 1.1%. Automotive revenue increased by 0.3% to EUR 19.6 billion. Mobility services contribution amounted to EUR 17 million.
Our captive finance company, which, by the way, has been renamed Mobilize Financial Services, recorded revenues of EUR 1.5 billion in the semester, up 0.5%. I'll now review the breakdown of revenue for the automotive industry segment. As just shown, the impact of discontinued operations on H1 revenue is EUR 2.1 billion. Starting on H1 adjusted, foreign exchange was a negative 0.9 points, mainly related to the devaluation of the Turkish lira. We had a negative volume impact of 5.2 points of total revenue, as was just mentioned. The product mix effect yielded a positive impact of 3.3 points, thanks to the success of our C crossover Arkana, which was launched in the second quarter of 2021.
The launch of Jogger in the first quarter of 2022, and Mégane Electric in Q2. As you can see, the group is back in the C-segment and it's starting to pay off. The benefit of the value over volume commercial policy is reflected in the 7.4 points of price effect. After a first quarter at 5.6 points, we posted an 8.4-point improvement in the second quarter. This continues to show how serious we are about improving the pricing of our cars and optimizing our commercial discounts. This semester, we reached the lowest level of commercial discounts in ten years. The impact of sales to partners was negative 1.8 points. It's mainly due to the lower production of diesel engines and the end of the contracts with Opel and Fiat at the end of last year.
The last bucket, others, represented a -2.1-point effect, explained by the decline of the contribution of our own dealership network, Renault Retail Group, mainly due to branches being sold. You will see further in the presentation that, however, the results of RRG were very strong. This effect was partially offset by strong pricing improvement in RRG and by the strong performance of our after-sales business. I'll now comment on the group operating margin by sector. We more than doubled the group's operating profit, delivering almost EUR 1 billion in H1, which represents 4.7% of revenue, up 2.6 points versus the first semester of 2021.
The automotive segment was positive EUR 420 million or 2.1% of auto revenue, up EUR 565 million, which is 2.8 points versus first half of 2021, despite a reduction in volume of 136,000 units. Our financing activity, Mobilize Financial Services, delivered EUR 582 million contribution to the group margin, stable versus last year. The next slide number 15, provides a sequential view of the group auto and the group auto operating margins by semester. I think the chart speaks for itself, and it's a further evidence of the group's ongoing transformation. Of course, as Luca mentioned, 4.7 is not the end game, and it's still below the performance of some of our competitors.
However, it's close to the resolution target that we had set for ourselves of 5% that was scheduled in 2025. It's a significant step towards our new ambitions, which we will present, by the way, at the capital market day that we will have in the fall. Let's see, more in detail, how we achieve this EUR 0.6 billion improvement year-over-year, despite an impact of lower volume of EUR 270 million. The biggest gain in the semester came from the high level of price mix and enrichment, which contributed EUR 1.5 billion. This is the largest effect in one semester in mass over the last 10 years, and it shows the strong benefit of our commercial policy.
This impact includes price increases to cover inflation, but more importantly, it reflects our strategy to bridge the gap versus the competition, to optimize the discount scheme of our dealer network, and crucially, the success of our lineup renewal on the C-segment in particular. We now show alongside this box the impact of costs in total, including raw material and input cost inflation, to highlight the group's ability to more than offset cost headwinds, thanks to pricing, mix, and productivity. You can see clearly the balance between the two boxes this semester. We achieved the best margin in variable cost in euros per unit in the last ten years. The impact of cost, however, was a large headwind. It represented EUR 647 million. The largest driver was higher raw material prices at -EUR 797 million, particularly steel.
Purchasing performance continued to be strong at EUR 167 million. Manufacturing cost increased by EUR 72 million, reflecting the impact of wages, energy, and logistics, at roughly EUR 150 million together, partially offset by strong productivity and lower amortization. Warranty was a positive EUR 55 million in the semester, which is more importantly an indication of the quality improvements that the company is delivering. R&D contribution was positive at EUR 56 million. Our growth spending was almost flat year-over-year, so the positive effect stems mainly from lower amortization and higher capitalization ratio at four plus 4.7 points. It remains quite a low capitalization ratio compared to historical averages. SG&A impact was negative EUR 82 million and is mainly explained by the non-reconduction in 2022 of partial employ...
Partial unemployment subsidies that we received last year during COVID. I'll comment on Mobilize Financial Services performance in a minute in the presentation. To finish the analysis, the last bucket, named Other, contributed negatively for EUR 75 million. A good performance in RRG, thanks to the implementation of the new commercial policy and our work to optimize the network, as well as an after-sales contribution that's back to its 2018 level, was more than offset by the effect of non-recurring items in the first half of 2021 and in 2022, and the effect of the retreatment of buyback commitments. Mobilize Financial Services generated EUR 8.9 billion of new financing in the semester, up 2.3%, in particular, thanks to the 14.8% increase in the average financed amount.
The pricing policy effects that we're getting on the new vehicle sales is also impacting favorably our financing franchise, and it also stems from a strong commercial performance with a penetration rate that's up 2.2 points at 46.5%. Average performing assets at EUR 43.7 billion were down 3.9%. This decrease is purely linked with the wholesale activity, so our dealer stock financing, for which the average performing assets was down 28.3% due to the reduction of dealer inventories resulting from the group strategy and from the shortage of electronic components. Net banking income was positively impacted this semester by a swaps valuation effect of EUR 58 million due to current interest rates. It should be noted that this effect will tend towards zero when the maturity of the swaps occurs.
Our cost of risk increased to 0.49%, but remains very low. Overall, Mobilize Financial Services posted an operating profit at EUR 0.6 billion, stable versus 2021 level. A non-cash adjustment of EUR 100 million on exposure to Russia impacted the pre-tax income and has been booked by Mobilize Financial Services in H1 2022. This impact is recorded in associated companies, and we'll cover that later in the presentation. I'll continue down the P&L with the other operating income and expenses items on slide 18, which amounted this semester to EUR 49 million. There's not much going on in this area in the semester. Slightly lower restructuring cost provisions stood at -EUR 134 million.
This expense was partially offset by the disposals of distribution network, real estate assets, which led to a capital gain of EUR 56 million. Continuing down the P&L, the next item is financial income and expenses on slide 19. The net charge stood at EUR 236 million this semester, which is an increase of EUR 98 million, mainly due to the accounting impact of hyperinflation in Argentina. The cost of debt actually remained flat. The next slide shows the impact of associated companies in Renault's P&L. Nissan's H1 contribution stood at EUR 325 million, an improvement of EUR 225 million versus last year. Contribution from other associates was a negative at minus EUR 111 million, compared to a plus EUR 60 million last year.
It mainly includes the depreciation of the assets of Renault Nissan Bank, which I mentioned previously. I'll turn back to the P&L on slide 21. The net tax charge came to -EUR 260 million on the semester versus -EUR 185 million last year, in line with the improvement of the pre-tax income, in particular in our foreign subsidiaries. Net income from continuing operations therefore reached EUR 657 million, up EUR 458 million versus last year. Net income from discontinued operations amounted to EUR 2.3 billion, as mentioned, due to the situation in Russia. Bottom line, total net profit came in at -EUR 1.666 billion.
Now that the P&L analysis is complete, I'll turn to slide 22 on the evolution of the net financial position. Cash flow from operations amounted to EUR 2.6 billion versus EUR 1.7 billion a year ago, reflecting the improvement in the operational performance and an EUR 800 million Mobilize Financial Services dividend payment. Net tangible and intangible investments came to EUR 1.1 billion, down almost EUR 320 million versus last year, mostly driven by CapEx and by leased vehicles. Group net CapEx and R&D rate as a percentage of turnover amounted to 8% in H1 versus 9.1% last year. This is in line with our target and also the best ratio since the second half of 2017. Assets disposal amounted to EUR 101 million.
As you can see, the net investments were way more than covered by the automotive free cash flow, regardless of the Mobilize Financial Services dividend, despite low volume of sales in the semester. This is the clear proof of the work that we've done with the team to lower the break-even point. Change in the working capital requirement had a negative impact of EUR 0.3 billion. We recorded restructuring cash out in the semester for EUR 0.3 billion. As a result, operational free cash flow reached almost EUR 1 billion in the semester. Net financial investments and dividends consists mainly in dividends received, including EUR 64 million from Nissan unpaid, as well as investments in EV and mobility startups. EUR 161 million of cash were booked in discontinued operations. Finally, Forex, IFRS, and others had a negative impact of EUR 68 million.
In total, our automotive net financial position improved by EUR 674 million compared to the end of last year and stood at -EUR 426 million. Taking into consideration the exit from our Russian operations, it represents an improvement of EUR 1.2 billion. We're on the right track to become net cash positive. On slide 23, it shows the inventory situation of Renault's balance sheet and for the independent dealer network. The figures prior to June 2022 have not been adjusted for Russian stock. They represented roughly 15,000 units on average over the period. As you can see, inventories are still very low, reflecting stricter inventory management, but also the chip shortage. In terms of backward coverage, this leads to about 60 days.
The liquidity of the automotive division was very comfortable at EUR 15.8 billion at the end of June 2022. In 2022, the group made an early repayment of EUR 1 billion of the loan from a banking pool guaranteed by the French state in H1, and will make an additional repayment of EUR 1 billion in H2 according to schedule. The remaining EUR 1 billion will be fully reimbursed by the end of 2023. As a side note, Renault SA launched a bond issue on the Japanese market in June for a total amount of JPY 80.7 billion, or roughly EUR 561 million at a rate of 3.5% and a maturity of 3 years.
The bond was cashed on July the first, and is therefore not included in the financial liabilities at June thirtieth, 2022. With that, Luca will give you the outlook for the rest of the year.
Thank you, Thierry. In H2, I'm gonna talk about H2. We think that market condition will continue to be challenging, so cost inflation, especially on raw materials, will continue to weigh strongly. We will probably have to face also the rising energy prices, although for this year, we substantially hedged them. We expect also consumer sentiment to continue to be low, which means the demand under tension, but our order book is full, as I said before, for 2022. On the other hand, we have several winning cards in our hands. On the electronic component side, the situation is improving, even if we still you know lack a full transparency.
Of course, we will continue to reduce costs, as Thierry said, but I hope we have proved you that we know how to do it. For sure, we will increasingly benefit from our lineup overall, Jogger, Arkana, and on top from now on, the brand new Mégane E-Tech, and especially the Austral. Renault Group has not been very famous for, in the past, for upgrading financial guidance. I told you we were changing. Today, we are significantly increasing our financial outlook for the year from around 3% to above 5% of operating margin. Our automotive operational free cash flow will be above EUR 1.5 billion compared to a positive free cash flow guidance we gave previously.
The Renaulution plan that we launched 18 months ago had three parts, resurrection, renovation, and revolution, if you remember. With this new guidance, we are now 3 years or more ahead of the targets and the commitments, and I think we can say that the resurrection phase, meaning the emergency phase, it's over at Renault. Let's look ahead at the years ahead. The renovation phase of the Renaulution, in fact, is already well underway. We are developing what we believe is our best product lineup in decades. So between 2023 and 2025, we will launch 25 new vehicles. Among them, some will support our geographical offensive on important markets like, I don't know, LatAm, South Korea, or India.
Others will bring us back where we deserve in our home market, Europe. Of course, this lineup will embody the Renaulution spirit, so more than half of the passenger cars will be in the C-segment or above. Almost one out of two will be pure electric, and overall, during these four years, more than 80% of the group launches worldwide will be electrified. In addition, we will launch electric version for our LCV and PC, Kangoo. Our intention is to be leader in electromobility. That's why we worked very hard to extend our coverage of the EV value chain. You can see it on this chart.
In H1, we continued to secure strategic raw materials, thanks to an agreement, for example, with Managem for low carbon cobalt. Of course, this direct cooperation ensures traceability, and there is more. Managem is recognized for its expertise in energy efficiency and decarbonized energy use. This is key for allowing us to build a compliant battery supply chain. We already secured almost 80% of our lithium and two-thirds of our nickel and cobalt. We also created a joint venture with Minth, and insourced battery casing for EVs, thus, I would say, strengthening our electric ecosystem in the northern part of France. On the e-motor side, we struck an important deal with Valeo, and by 2027, we will be the first OEM mass producing a 200 kW e-motor without rare earths.
That means that our France industrial operation will be totally pivoting from ICEs to EVs. We will produce this e-motor for Renault, but also potentially for other clients. Our strategic partnership with Vitesco complements the agreement we signed with STMicroelectronics last year. It will allow us to develop and produce a unique power electronic concept, the One Box we call it, that will allow for a 45% volume reduction of the parts of our hybrid and electric powertrains. All this work was meant to secure that Renault would be in the position to be a leader in the transition to electromobility. Starting from 10% three years ago, we already managed to cover 30% of the EV value chain, and thanks to partnerships agreed in last months, we will be at 80% in a few years' time.
Specialists consider that Renault is already on the global podium when it comes to EV value chain integration. We are also obsessed with the idea of making Renault one of the most competitive and progressive companies in the world. We are working hard to ensure the long term, and let me mention some example that are, for me, pretty symbolic. We decided to completely digitalize the product development process to reduce time and cost. That's why we partner with Dassault Systèmes for using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform. We are the first OEM to go so far. You can ask to my friend Bernard Charlès, nearly 20,000 of our employees are already plugged into this virtual twin experience. This is a game changer for our supplier, for our engineers, for our purchasing people, and for our finance people.
We are also ahead of the game on Industry 4.0. We developed an industrial digital twin leveraging the best solutions on the market, including the Google Cloud platform. It is so well done that other players are interested in using it, so we partner with Atos to put it on the market. In the new mobility space, you have certainly heard about Mobilize. A lot of things are happening at the same time in that organization. For example, we decided to boost our insurance business to offer pay-per-use packages to our customer. We target a 70% growth in insurance and financial services by 2030. To embrace the software value chain, we pursue an ecosystemic approach together with Atos, Dassault Systèmes, Orange, STMicroelectronics, and Thales. We launched the Software République. This is a kind of a tech ecosystem to generate innovation in the new mobility space.
Recently, we created its incubator, and we have already incubated five startups. The software-defined vehicle is the next automotive revolution, and Renault wants to be a front runner. It is already happening, actually. If you look at the Mégane E-Tech and the Austral, these are concrete demonstration of our know-how. We registered 300 patents on those cars, and our engineers developed the Android-based infotainment system. Everybody says that this is today's benchmark in the market. This, I would say, spider web that we started to weave a couple of years ago with tech companies working, it gives us speed in execution and agility in financial commitments in a very evolutionary tech world. This horizontal model of cooperation will be one of the characteristics of Renault's business model looking forward, and this relationship will become deeper.
Let me also come back to product because this is what our customer expect from us, first. There is no product that better represents our ambition than the Scénic concept we recently presented in Paris. It is the successor of a legendary Renault hit, completely reinvented as a C-segment SUV with a hybrid hydrogen engine. I asked the team to embody our ESG strategy into a physical product. This is the only way for people to understand that ESG is not a PowerPoint exercise. An ESG strategy in Renault that we build on three pillars, inclusion, safety, and environment. The result is a new generation Scénic with a reinvented interior where each passenger, not only the driver, is the hero.
A car that is 75% less polluting from cradle to grave than a comparable BEV. It also reduces by up to 70% the risk of accidents, thanks to the onboarded ADAS technology. This shows how far we are pushing the envelope on future products. The best news is that a very close model will be in the markets in maximum 18 months. Let me finish with a comment on the alliance, as I'm sure that some questions will arise. We are working to open a new chapter in the alliance based on the mutual trust, focused on concrete projects, and with a win-win mindset. Renault offers its platform to Mitsubishi to enable them to stay in Europe. Nissan decides to build the success of the Micra in our plant in France.
These are just first examples of a new dynamics that we are building together. You will see more in the next month and years. We are all convinced that we need to stick together to face the competitive challenges expecting us in the next decade. I want to take the opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to Jean-Dominique Senard, Chairman of the Alliance, for the tremendous work he is doing to facilitate this very strategic discussion. I also want to thank Uchida-san, Kato-san, and Ashwani Gupta for their trust and their cooperative mindset. All the key members of Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Renault management are working very hard to open this new chapter. The last 24 months were among the hardest and more intense of my now unfortunately long career.
It's true also for the Renault team. I would like to honor them and thank them for their unbelievable work, but I like to think that the most exciting part starts now. For all of us, the opportunity to qualify very much in front of the starting grid for the next Grand Prix, it is a very, very motivating challenge. We are very determined to accelerate and engage into the Renaulution. Our idea is very simple. Automotive is not a single discipline anymore. It's like Olympic Games. Making EVs, making ICE vehicles, addressing new opportunities in the world of mobility, for example, have turned into very different sports with different rules of the games. This is true in terms of innovation management, customer expectation, competitive environment, workforce, and capital intensity. The success factors are also different.
We will focus dedicated teams with full accountability to win medals on the different competition fields. In this phase, it is not any more a matter of being big. It is a matter of being good. The studies that we announced in February are progressing very well, and I can tell you that there is a very strong motivation in the team and in the company, and we have already received several partnerships requests. We believe that we are at a turning point in the history of the group, and this time, hopefully, for the good. We will be more specific during the capital market day in the fall. Thank you very much for your attention, and obviously, we are now open to your questions.
Thank you, Luca. We can start the Q&A session with a question from Charles Coldicott from Redburn. Charles, please could you open your mic?
Hi. Yeah, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. I've got two, please. Firstly, pricing. Even though the overall pricing environment has been accommodating, it seems like you've been able to extract more pricing gains than your competitors. My question would be, you know, if that environment becomes harder and industry pricing starts to normalize, do you expect that you outperform on pricing on the way down, just as it seems you have done on the way up? Should we think about you moving more in line with the industry? My second question, conversely, the cost savings from purchasing as well as manufacturing and logistics were perhaps a little lighter than I'd expected in H1. Do you think you can re-accelerate that again, or should we expect margin expansion to continue to come mainly from price mix?
Thank you.
I'll answer the first one on pricing if you'll please wait. I think the answer is pretty simple. We have significantly adjusted our production capacity. Based on our, you know, forecast, we will be next year already way above 100% capacity utilization at Renault. That means, we will, you know, not fall into the trap of pushing a car that, you know, the customer doesn't want. You can see it also very clearly in the mix, in the channel mix that we have, you know, built during this month. The other thing is Renault will finally get, you know, the advantage of a favorable product life cycle.
I think we will be able to defend the pricing because we're not gonna push, okay, on deals that are not profitable. That's the mantra, that's our religion. The other one is that we will mechanically, you know, improve our pricing because we're gonna get cars that are new, yeah, that will more likely be attractive to retail customer, and they will actually be in segments where, you know, the transaction price is higher. I'll leave it to you.
On the cost side, you know, I wanted to comment a little bit on some of the figures that were indicated. First of all, the purchasing performance at EUR 167 million is slightly lower than in previous years. You have to take into consideration that that number includes almost EUR 100 million of inflation coming from electronic components due to the current situation. The second element is, and I think I mentioned it in the presentation, in the manufacturing number, there's almost EUR 150 million coming from higher logistics costs, coming from wage inflation and coming from the rise of the cost of energy.
If you exclude that, the productivity that was delivered by the manufacturing team is actually pretty strong. Luca mentioned 10% savings in energy. On fixed costs, they delivered more than 8% productivity. You know, if you look at the sort of ex monozukuri bucket here, it's you know, roughly EUR 150 million, but that includes EUR 250 million of external headwinds from the current situation. Adjusted for that, it's about EUR 400 million for the first semester, which is at least as good, if not better, compared to the performance we had in the past. I would say, you know, as these costs tend to...
The inflation tends to stabilize. You should see an improvement in those buckets. The other thing, more importantly, is you know, we're at the cusp of a big product offensive revolution. As the new products come online, a lot of them will come with much better cost positioning. We've done a lot of work in terms of reduction of diversity. You know, we've reduced by 40% the number of parts that enter in the production of the cars. We've reduced commercial diversity as well by having standard ranges across Europe, et cetera. As opposed to seeing sort of brute force manufacturing and logistics savings in the future, you'll also see a cost benefit coming from cars that have a DNA that's more competitive. Okay.
It will start with the new cars that we're launching right now, but the full effect will come as we launch the vehicles, according to the schedule that Luca presented earlier.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Thierry. We now have a question from Thomas Besson from Kepler Cheuvreux. Thomas, please open your mic.
Yes. Good morning. Thank you, Philippine. I'll have three questions, please. I'd like to stay on the likely deterioration of the macro environment. You mentioned four months plus order book. Look at that more or less kind of secures H2 in terms of volumes and probably earnings. Can you say a few words about what you have been seeing over the last two, three months when we've effectively seen a deterioration of consumer confidence and the first impact of the inflation on consumer purchasing power? That's the first question. Then I have one for Thierry on the financial services. Can you say a few more words on it?
The cost of risk started rising, and you had again a solid contribution to earnings, but for once it was slightly down. Your equity in this business is still at a very high level. I think you still have EUR 6.7 billion of Mobilize Financial Services equity. How much can you still pay in terms of recurring dividend in 2023, 2024? Should we more expect something in the EUR 400 million-EUR 500 million range, or can you continue to pay a kind of super dividend for a third year?
Third question, probably a bit more difficult because I think you probably want to keep that for September, but I wanted to know if there's any kind of update you can give us on your plans for the spin-off of the sexy bit of Renault, and the potential participation of Nissan to that. Thank you.
Bonjour, Thomas. Look, the, let's say the customer order, you know, market's very. It's actually pretty untransparent. We don't have the data in all the markets, right? So they're not public, as you know. And you also have in the database when, you know, things that maybe they are not, they're kind of hiding the reality. Like for example, if you do self-registration, it counts as an order, but it's actually not. So it's very difficult to say. We are, you know, we are very clean in the channel. Very clean. So and we feel like from the indication that we are, we're probably above competition in terms of order intake.
It might be around, I don't know, minus 20%, kind of, in terms of incoming orders from the customer on average in the market. I think what is also interesting to see for Renault, in the Renault case, is that we are selling cars that are pretty rich. So the mix is very high. Even in a brand like Dacia, the Sandero is probably 70% of the mix of Stepway, which is the highest thing. So we are really managing to get the orders that come, to get them on cars that are rich in equipment and therefore more profitable. That's what I can say. It's very difficult to give you an answer on that because the order market is pretty untransparent.
On Mobilize Financial Services, first of all, Mobilize Financial Services, couple things that explain the fact that it's flat. First of all, as I mentioned, volume decreased a little bit, and that's primarily due to wholesale financing. We finance the stock of the dealers, as you know, and dealer stock is down massively. One, because we wanted it, 'cause we didn't want to continue to load the dealers. Secondly, realistically, there's a shortage situation. On the customer side, the average performing assets continue to increase. We're actually up 1.3 points, but you've got this balance between wholesale and retail. The second element that explains the fact that the profit is flat versus last year is cost of risk.
I think, in reality, it's really back to normal. We've been hovering between 0.4% and 0.5% of average performing assets, historically. Last year was abnormally low because the year before that was abnormally high. We built up the risk profile in 2020 during COVID, released it during 2021, and then now it's kind of the normal effect. You know, on the ability to distribute dividend, I think clearly, you know, our view is that the level of this year is an exceptionally high level.
I think we should be looking at something that's relatively close to EUR half a billion in the future, in particular because we should see a return to growth once the electronic components crisis gets solved, and therefore, you know, we'll need liquidity in RCI, in Mobilize Financial Services, sorry.
I'll take the question on the plan. Of course, as you suggested, it's probably not the moment to reveal what we are, you know, we're doing, so we leave it for after summer. What I can say is this. There is a pretty good move, let's say, mood in the company that is supporting all the ideas that we have. I think I guess there are probably 300, 400 people that are working on it every day, so it means that we are doing very serious work on that. As you mentioned, on Nissan, the cooperation is getting stronger and stronger week after week, and the relationship are getting, you know, again, very, very close.
We've been a couple of times to Japan in the last two months. You know, the management of Nissan came here. We've been very transparent with our colleagues from Nissan and Mitsubishi about our intention. This is important. Because we believe that Renault has to do it and will do it. We have also always opened the door to Mitsubishi and to Nissan to engage on all the projects that we are doing together. Of course, it's up to them to you know decide what they wanna do, but we believe that we have a lot of opportunity to do really structural things together.
That's the aim of, you know, of this reinvention of the alliance, is to come, if you know, from the bottom and from very concrete industrial projects. Maybe in the fall, we will tell you more about it.
Merci.
We now have a question from Horst Schneider, Bank of America. Good morning, Horst. Horst, please could you open your mic?
Can you hear me now?
Yeah.
Okay. I wanted to say congrats for the great results, and thanks for taking most of my questions. I have got a specific one on volumes. I mean, we got a quite different guidance from other companies. When we look at the American OEMs, they guide for something like 15%-20% sequential growth. Volkswagen was very bullish with its 40% sequential growth, but that's also driven by China, as they said. It would be good to have some better guidance by you, what we could expect for Renault. I mean, you should have by now nearly full visibility if your order book is four months' time. The second one, also a little bit read across to peers.
I mean, I know you don't disclose profitability by region, but we saw yesterday, for example, that Stellantis really great profitability in Middle East and especially Turkey. Since you're a market leader in Turkey, maybe you can provide a little bit color what has been profitability by region, where we have seen the biggest strengths. The last one, it's a more strategic question. I mean, as much as I like your results now, the concern of course that I have, and that's a little bit a add-on also what Thomas asked, is that your customers are typically at low end of market, right?
I know you want to improve that by the new model launches that you have, but can you provide a little bit color when we talk about models like the Mégane now, and also like the Austral, to what extent you can conquer basically new customers which have got a higher income level. To what extent you conquer from Volkswagen and from the other brands where the customers have got a little bit of better affordability. Thank you.
Look, maybe I'll take the question on the volume side. We don't really give volume guidance. However, for us, as you pointed out, we've got 4.1 months of order book. So it's a supply discussion, not a demand discussion, very clearly. We're forecasting an improvement in the component situation in the second half. Volume for the second half should be quite a bit stronger than it was in the first half. All right? On the profitability, by-
It's always like this in H2.
Yeah. It's typically always like this. It's a little bit more marked this year because we've got normalization of the component situation. On the profitability by region, what I can tell you is, we've seen improvement across all the regions. The commercial policy that we've put in place is paying off in all the geographies, all the key geographies that we operate in. You know, we've had a great work that was done by the team in Latin America to focus on the right channels. We discussed the improvements that were made in retail, in particular in the Renault brand, in Europe. Dacia has been very strong in Europe.
We really see a widespread profitability improvement across the geographies. You wanna take the questions on the high-end models and I can-
First signs are pretty motivating because as I said before, Mégane is working. People are actually buying cars that are worth more than EUR 40,000. We have a very high mix. I'm sure that we still don't have the number on conquest versus loyalty, but I guess this is a typical conquest tool, a car that will bring completely new customer profile to Renault. I'm not sure that I totally agree with you that we only have customer in the low end of the society. Honestly, I think we are a pop brand, so we sell cars to everybody.
That's what we are since like, you know, 120 years. We'll continue to do this, and we'll try to upgrade, of course, let's say, the mix and the kind of profile. I believe that the new product will enable to do this because they are, you know. We were selling 70% of small cars and, you know, in a few years' time will be 50% of typical family cars. It's just a different usage of the product and, but, with the same people. Our target is very large.
You know, one thing that maybe is not very clear what happened here is, I remember as you were talking about Volkswagen or Stellantis. A couple of years ago, when we started to build the Renaulution plan, we wanted to use PSA as a benchmark on many criteria, okay? Including on pricing and all the things. What we did is, in two years, basically to catch up what PSA was in 2019, okay? Look at the numbers, and you will see that we are there. This is a very positive sign because you know the rest of the story.
Even on pricing, one of my let's say ambitions was to you know catch up with the PSA, especially with Peugeot, and for the Renault brand and Dacia with the Citroën brand in pricing. You can look at the numbers, these are public numbers. We are basically there. That's the most important thing for me. We will also upgrade you, and I will send you a cap from Alpine because I like your cap.
I sent you my private address, Luca.
No problem.
Just as a quick amendment, I mean, don't take it personally if I say you have got low-end customers.
Yeah.
I have driven myself a Renault, a Renault Kadjar. I don't have a Renault Kadjar anymore right now because I leased it just for one year.
Yeah.
It got too expensive.
Yeah.
That's positive.
Yeah.
I'm sure you can do with the Austral a lot better, and then I maybe drive a Renault again.
Good. Right.
Let's hand you back to the queue.
Okay, good.
look, by the way, we also like some of the what you call low-end customers. We love the Dacia brand these days. In an environment where, you know, the prices are increasing, et cetera, the Dacia franchise is incredibly well positioned. As you could see in the growth figures in the first semester, Dacia was up 5.9%. It's one of the only brands that actually gained ground. Having this sort of double positioning, factually-
Yeah
You know, the high range of Renault is doing well. I mean, the first signs on Mégane are very good. The trim level is super high, 70% high trim, 82% big battery. Dacia is performing very well. I'd say it's positive news.
As you're German, Dacia is the brand of the zeitgeist, I would say.
Okay. Yeah. For people who do not need a status symbol. I agree. Yes. Good luck.
Thank you, Horst. We now have a question from Gabriel Adler from Citi. Gabriel, please, could you open your mic?
Hi. Morning. Thanks for taking my questions. My first is on your market outlook. I'd like if you could just explain maybe your thinking behind raising your market outlook for 2022. You've obviously maintained the 300,000 unit impact from semi, so it's not necessarily a change on your view of the supply chain there.
Some color there on what's behind your more positive view on the European market outlook in particular would be interesting given all the pressures we're seeing on the consumer that Horst just mentioned there as well. My second question is on the breakeven points. Clearly good progress being made here, lowering the breakeven points. You're well ahead of plan, as we know. Maybe you could help us understand a bit better though, where you see further opportunities to reduce fixed costs or whether really from here on out, it's more about volume growth as the next driver of improvements in profitability rather than more cost cutting. My final question is on the E- Mégane . The deliveries of E- Mégane are now beginning to accelerate. Maybe you could comment a little bit on how you're going.
How you expect that to impact product mix in the second half, and any comments around the profitability of the E- Mégane relative to your ICE lineup would be really helpful? Thank you.
Okay. I'll start, and then I'll let Luca comment afterwards. On the market outlook, I think it's just a question of what we see from our components situation perspective. Visibility in the first half was still very poor. We did see a significant improvement in the months of May and June, in particular in June. It's clear that you know, the situation is not entirely solved and visibility remains problematic with a few selected suppliers. However, we do see an improvement, and that should drive some of the ability for us and for the other OEMs to execute more volume. On the fixed cost side, look, we're.
It's not going to be only a volume game. It's very much going to continue to be a cost game, and both variable cost and fixed cost. I commented previously on variable cost. It's probably the biggest lever at this point for us. Again, it's a question of putting the new models on the road because they come, as I said, with inherently more competitive sort of DNA, and we'll continue to see that benefit as the models come out. On the fixed cost side, we're gonna continue to work it, absolutely. In fact, our total fixed costs continue to be down in the first half. Obviously, it's not the same magnitude as what we had in the first two years of the initiative.
You know, we're not gonna take another EUR 2 billion out in the coming two years. I'd like to highlight that if you include the deconsolidation of AvtoVAZ, our fixed cost compared to two years ago is actually down 30%. We're gonna continue to work it, and I think the next step is really around sort of wing-to-wing process improvement. Luca commented on some of the digitization initiatives that we're putting in place with the partnership with Dassault, et cetera. For us, it's a question of becoming leaner and more efficient thanks to process improvement and digitization. We'll absolutely keep working it, obviously not with the same magnitude of savings as what we've had in the last two years. On the...
Your question on Mégane E, you know, there's 3.3 points of product mix effect in the first semester that you saw in the walk across on the turnover side. You know, roughly a quarter of that comes from Mégane E, despite the fact that it's only been for sale for a few weeks. We look forward to having the full effect of that car. As to the profitability of the car, I can tell you our rule is that the electric vehicles need to be relative to the margin of the group, and Mégane is off to a good start.
Thank you, Jay. Gabriel, just one additional comment regarding your first question. We didn't made any upgrade on the outlook for the market. What you saw on the slide is for H2 and not for the full year. We now have a question from Tom Narayan, RBC. Tom, the floor is yours. Tom, please could you open your mic? Okay, we will take next question, Philippe Houchois from Jefferies. Philippe, please could you open the mic?
Yes. Good morning. I hope you can help you can hear me now. I just have two questions, please. The first one, maybe for Luca. On one of your slides, you show 12 product launches in 2020-2024, which is as much as you're gonna do for the following 3 years. I was just I asked you that question before. I'm trying to understand, are those models going to be expansion to the range, or are you thinking more about We had 4 this week talk about thinking of a future with fewer body styles and more differentiation from software, and I'm just trying to understand whether you're looking at, you know, range expansion or trying to find a better volume of a more limited, more focused product range. The second question I have is on inventory.
60 days of sales is not a bad level of inventory, I think, from what I understand from the rest of the industry. Is that really a limiting factor to your commercial performance? I'm kind of wondering, are there any dead products in there that
Hard to get rid of. When you think about the future of distribution, is that 60 days a good representation of what you would like to keep the levels on? Thank you.
Look, I think that, you know, thank God, we will have, you know, new products in the thing because that was the problem for us for a few years. I can't complain that we are, you know, adding, let's say new models to the range. Some of them are, you know, replacement of, let's say, cars that we already have improved. Take the example of the Austral versus Kadjar. Others, they are just like adding up because we also are developing the EV range. As you know, at Renault, we made a choice of having a completely different strategy and dedicated strategy from a technological point of view on EVs. We have specific platform, which we believe is the right way of doing it. Okay?
Cars like Renault Five or Renault Four, et cetera, et cetera, will be simply addition to the range, which is good, I think. You go back to what Thierry said. We have completely changed the way we have engineered together with Gilles Le Borgne, et cetera, the way we develop the cars. We have leveraged a Alliance platform. Many of the investment were behind us, okay? We try to do you know a range with much less diversity, okay? Commercially, it's probably 40%-50% down. Technically, also 40%-50% down.
The result is that we are now able, in terms of CapEx and R&D and development costs on the car, to do two cars for the price of one we used to do before. That shows, let's say that. This is, I would say, the reason why we can afford to limit the CapEx as we did pretty substantially, but at the same time offer more products. You might ask me, "Why you didn't do it before?" I mean, you know, probably sometimes it's a question of people, of you know, orientation, et cetera, but we did it. We will have a very efficient lineup. We will have in the segments that are on growth, where there is margin.
I tell you, we, let's say, this morning we say that for us resurrection is over after two good semesters of results. I can tell you that when you look at the numbers on the 25 projects that we have, they are very, very solid. The projects are based on volumes that are reasonable. We have reasonable price assumptions. We are very close to the targets that we gave ourselves a couple of years ago. I'm pretty confident that this range of products would be probably one of the best we have ever had in, you know, three decades, or at least since I observe Renault as an employee or as a competitor, you know. I am very confident about it.
I think in inventory, yeah, I think my philosophy is like 2-month plus of order bank and 2 months minus in stock. You need to find that kind of a, let's say, of balance to be able to, you know, satisfy customer demand, you know, reduce delays in deliveries. Right now, we are not in normal situation. You know, people are waiting 6 months, 7 months for a car. Of course, it has an impact because I'm sure that we lose sales, but there's nothing we can do. We're trying to find components, left and right. It's already a hard thing. The good thing is that we are light. In case you have, you know, downturn of the market, we are light in stock.
We haven't, you know, increased the stock compared to last year, so we will enter you know potentially if I hope not, because we already had a lot of miseries in the last two years. Imagine that the thing, you know, doesn't work, at least we are light in stock.
You asked the question on aged stock. I can tell you it's at historically.
Yeah.
Low level.
Yeah.
To give you an idea on the Renault brand, it's down 87%.
Mm.
versus last year. We're running very efficient stock.
Fabrice is here, Fabrice Cambolive, who runs this. You know, it was one of our target, right? We were double digit with the old stock, and now we have very really low single digit on that. So everything that we have in the dealers, we actually invoice. That's the story. As soon as the car comes, then it goes. You have, you know, you need to have a minimum of things. Right now we are invoicing everything that is physically available.
Thank you.
Thank you, Luca. Now we have a question for José Asumendi from J.P. Morgan. José, please could you open your mic?
Thank you. Good morning, hi Luca and Thierry, and congrats on the progress done, and I think particularly the debt reduction. I think that was one of the highlights today. Couple of questions, please. Thierry, can you comment a little bit. Can you comment on restructuring cash outflow first half, and second half, please, expectations? Second, can you comment on price dynamics, price mix dynamics into the second half, if possible, also 2023? And also, working capital opportunity as production hopefully rebounds slowly back in the second half and 2023. And then Luca, can you comment a little bit around two topics? I think one, the Austral launch. So how important is this for you? How many orders did you get so far?
What's the sort of cadence into the second half of the year on this vehicle, which is?
I think underestimated by the market how important it's going to be. Then second, can you come back again to the alliance? You showed the alliance slide, and you made the comments to Jean-Dominique. I fully agree. I think this is one of the. I mean, I have not seen so much progress on the alliance and proper progress, i.e., building cars on the Renault Group, you know, Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance architecture. I haven't seen so much progress in a very long time. Actually, we're seeing the fruits of that, right? Where you're seeing how vehicles are gonna be built now by Mitsubishi.
Can you comment a little bit more around what this means for the alliance and also in terms of the maybe the economics? I mean, this is gonna be a substantial booster also for the economies of scale of any plants in Europe. Thank you.
Ciao, José. I start with the two questions to me, and then I leave it to Thierry for the other one on the cash flow and the working capital. I mean, you know that I don't like to make forecasts on volumes, right? Austral is a car that goes into one of the most important segments in Europe. It's not a car for tens of thousands. It's a car for hundreds of thousands, okay? Potentially.
We have a product that is very competitive in cost, produced in a very efficient plant in Spain, in your country, with very good quality, with a great package, with probably the best, let's say, I would say engine line-up you have in the segment, right in the core of the market with the hybrid. This engine is the best, you know, in terms of efficiency. I mean, who would have imagined that you could bring to the market a C-SUV with 200 horsepower and 100 grams of CO2? This is a miracle, right? This thing is better than the diesel, right?
We have, you know, the infotainment system that we also, let's say, have in the Mégane, which is considered, you know, by far the best right now. We are confident. We don't wanna blow it up. We don't wanna, you know, think that this thing, but we have a very serious argument to be on par with, you know, the kings of this segment. You know, in this segment, you have at least twice the margin, okay? In twice the margin you have on the segment we would normally sell cars, at least, I say, okay? You can imagine that this thing will have a huge effect on, you know, on our turnovers, on our profitability.
Let's work on it, and let's try not to replicate the mistakes that we did at the beginning with the Kadjar, where we were pushing volumes. We will not do this. Then we destroyed the residual value. We're not gonna do that. We're gonna do it properly, okay? Because the car deserves it. For the alliance, yeah. I mean, I don't know what to say. I think we're working, you know, a lot with our colleagues from Nissan and Mitsubishi. I'm taking the problem from, let's say, what I'm supposed to, you know, from the point of what I'm supposed in my role to do, which is taking the thing from the operation from the bottom, right? Trying to find projects that are win-win for both companies.
Very important is, we have, you know. You know, I always try to do what is best for Renault first, assuming that if we do something that is great in absolute terms, then our Japanese colleagues will take it, okay? That's what we've done. Take the example of the Micra. I mean, 10 years ago when the Micra, the current Micra was decided, and it was decided that it would be produced in Flins. That was an imposed decision from the management. The Nissan boys, they actually always were always frustrated, but this thing never worked economically in the market, et cetera. In this case, we didn't force anything. We just showed them the numbers, yeah? Showed them the product.
They said, "Okay, guys, we're gonna do it in your plant, on your platform, because there is no, you know, better solution for us." That's the right relationship that we have to build amongst partners. I have to do, you know, I have to make of Renault a competitive company first, right? I have to do things that are so great that they cannot ignore it, okay? It seems it looks like it's working that way. You will see more things, coming, you know, from now to the by the end of the year. Very, very big things that will happen.
On the numbers question, hi, José. On restructuring, the cash out for the second half should be slightly higher than the cash out for the first half, as people are taking the plan and restart paying out. From a price and mix, you know, mix will continue to improve, as Austral and Mégane E-Tech come fully online. Price, you know, I mentioned in the presentation that it was 5.6 points in the first quarter, 8.4 points in the second quarter. The trend is going to continue in the second half, as we'll have the full effect of the price increases that we did in the first half. From a working capital perspective, you know, volume is very constrained today.
As you know, we have negative working capital.
When volume picks up, we will have working capital lift. In the guidance that we gave, we're not counting on a massive working capital upside. Should be some improvement in the second half, but nothing massive. However, you know, if we get back, hopefully at one point to the volumes we were pre-crisis, there would be a significant working capital upside.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
We have now time from maybe a last question from Richard Carlson, Credit Suisse. Richard, could you open your mic, please?
Yes. Thank you, guys. Thank you for sticking around and taking my question, and congrats on the performance. It's very impressive. I don't think anybody's working as hard as you guys. You know, on gas, though, you know, you mentioned that you're in a good spot with your own production, but to what extent are you worried about your supply chain? I'm sure you have a few suppliers out there who are. You may be sole sourcing in Germany might have an issue. Are you able to start digging through the supply chain and figuring out where you might have a bottleneck, should the gas situation get really bad in Germany?
We have made this analysis, and obviously, you know, most of the suppliers are around the plants. I mentioned to you, we made also analysis on which country are more or less dependent from Russian gas. We might be, in this case, for once, a little bit lucky with this thing for once, right? But you never know because you can't control completely. Some of the supply chains are very deep, right? That's why we say there will be uncertainty on the thing, but relatively, we feel that relative to the market, we'll be in a better shape. We have done a very thorough analysis on this.
There is a group of people that is actually focusing the whole day and night to actually observe and provide parts and understand the potential risk. In some cases, we are also thinking about you know having some strategic stocks et cetera. Getting into a different kind of product without having a huge impact on the working capital. We're trying to be smart. You know the two years of experience with this component crisis you know specialized a group of people in handling such kind of disruption. We have a war room, and people are working you know 24/7 into the thing.
They're very, very good, and we have proved it because, you know, we have been able to manage the last couple of years in an honorable way, and you can see the results.
Conclude.
No, you can conclude, Philippine.
Sorry.
The floor is yours, Philippine. No, I just want to say I wish, you know, a good summer to everybody and thank you for the time you spent with us. I hope that we were, you know, able to, you know, to prove to you that we are. As you said, Richard, we are working very, very hard. You know, for us, it's just the beginning. Hopefully, the most exciting part of the story comes now with Renault. Thank you very much.