French carmaker Renault reports record revenues

French carmaker Renault has reported record annual revenues after a revamp of its range boosted sales.

Revenues rose 13.1% to 51.2bn euros (£43.6bn) last year, slightly ahead of expectations, while net income jumped by nearly 20% to 3.54bn euros.

Earlier this week, Renault said it had sold 3.2 million vehicles last year, a 13.4% rise on 2015, with market share rising in all regions.

The firm's sales have now overtaken French rival Peugeot Citroen.

Renault's financial director Clotilde Delbos said 2016 had been "a very good year" for the carmaker, and the company had hit all of its targets.

"These objectives, in particular that of exceeding 50bn euros in sales, have been achieved by 2016," she told a news conference.

She added that the results had been achieved despite markets such as Brazil and Russia that "count a lot for us and which were strong in the past" but were still at "lower levels than in the past".

Renault said it expected the global car market to grow by between 1.5% and 2% next year, with sales in Europe and France up 2%.

It forecasts the markets in Brazil and Russia will be "stable", but expects 5% growth in China and the Indian market to expand by 8%.

Last month, French authorities said they would investigate Renault over suspected "cheating" in diesel emissions tests.

The Paris prosecutors office is to conduct a probe into "cheating on key parts" of vehicles and into the quality of the tests.

The move comes in response to concerns raised last year by the French consumer protection agency, which carried out an investigation into several carmakers in the wake of the Volkswagen scandal.