New emissions tests brake German car sales again

New car sales in Germany dipped again in November, official data showed Tuesday, as automakers continued to feel the sting from tough new EU emissions tests that have led to production slowdowns.

A total of 272,674 new cars hit the road last month, down 9.9 percent yearon-year, the KBA transport authority said.

The figure is an improvement however on the 30-percent plunge seen in September when the so-called WLTP emissions tests took effect.

A scramble to adapt cars to the new regulations has caused bottlenecks at auto plants, resulting in fewer models hitting the market in recent months although carmakers are gradually catching up. The introduction of the WLTP procedure was spurred by the “dieselgate” scandal that started with Volkswagen’s admission in 2015 that it had installed cheating software in millions of diesels to dupe pollution tests.

Once popular diesel cars have fallen out of favour since then, losing significant market share to petrol motors.

Diesels accounted for just 34 percent of the market in November, but analysts pointed out that that figure now stood at the same level as a year earlier, suggesting that the diesel plunge could be stabilising.

Electric vehicles meanwhile are gaining ground but remain a niche market, the KBA data showed, with sales up 40 percent year-on-year. But that still amounted to just 4,300 units sold. (AFP)