For the first six months of 2010, the carmaker reported a net profit of €680 million compared to a loss of €962 million for the first half of 2009. Revenue was up 20.8% to €28.39 billion from €23.5 billion in H1 2009, which PSA attributed to  successful new models, market share gains and favourable demand worldwide.

Commenting on the results, CEO Philippe Varin said: 'The group is now well on track to rebuilding sustainable profitability with strong first half results driven by market share gains and the benefits of the performance plan.'

Within the Automobile division revenues rose 13.5% to €21.17 billion in H1 2010. New car revenues increased 14.7% to €15.82 billion up from €13.8 billion, driven by record vehicle sales in the first half. European market share rose to 14.5% from 13.7%.

However, PSA said that it is looking outside Europe for future growth, in particular China where it currently has a joint venture with Dongfeng Automobile Co Ltd and also recently announced a second JV with China Changan Automobile Group.

Mr Varin added: 'The second joint venture in China represents a major step towards growing our business outside Europe. We are now confident that we will generate half of our vehicle sales outside Europe by 2015, compared to one third at the beginning of the current year.'
 
In a statement, PSA added that the European market is expected to be down 7% in 2010. Double digit growth is expected in China, and high single-digit growth in Latin America.

For the full year, it says that that it expects to deliver a recurring operating income of around €1.5 billion.