New emission tests brake EU car sales in September
FRANKFURT: Car sales slumped across Europe in September, industry data published on Wednesday showed, with the hangover from a sales binge before new emissions tests came into force knocking Volkswagen out of its traditional top spot in monthly sales.
At 1.09 million, passenger car sales were down 23.5 per cent in the 28-member European Union last month compared with September 2017, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) said in a statement.
“This should not come as a surprise, as the introduction of the new WLTP test at the beginning of last month caused an exceptional surge in registrations in August” as carmakers rushed to squeeze through older models ahead of the cutoff, ACEA commented.
Sales had jumped by nearly a third in August, traditionally a soft month for car sales as many Europeans are on vacation, as carmakers discounted vehicles that hadn’t been certified using the new WLTP test.
The new Eu-wide test procedure is one front of authorities’ reaction to VW’S 2015 admission to mass cheating on diesel vehicles, with suspicions since spreading to other manufacturers.
Wolfsburg-based VW manipulated 11 million cars worldwide to meet limits for emissions of harmful nitrogen oxides (NOX) under lab conditions.
In real on-road driving, they spewed many times the allowed amounts of the harmful gases — which the World Health Organization (WHO) says aggravate asthma and bronchitis symptoms and are linked to cardiovascular and respiratory disease.
In the event, VW — Europe’s largest car group by sales volume — was the hardest hit by the introduction of the new tests. It shifted 172,000 cars last month compared with 330,500 in September 2017, ceding the top spot in monthly sales to France’s PSA.
The 48 per cent sales plunge was much steeper than that for Italy’s Fiat, which saw a drop of 31.9 per cent and France’s Renault which fell 27 per cent. Sales of VW’S own-brand cars were down 52 per cent, while luxury subsidiary Porsche saw a near 70 per cent collapse. “We’ll continue to see effects in October” from WLTP, VW sales chief Christian Dahlheim said on Friday, while predicting “stronger months” to follow. German competitors have faced less dramatic sales cliff-edges, with BMW down 8.6 per cent and Mercedes-benz maker Daimler shedding 11.8 per cent in September.
In France, PSA — which owns Peugeot and Citroen as well as German manufacturer Opel — lost just 7.7 per cent of sales.
Looking beyond the September slump, August’s sales surge has helped manufacturers keep their full-year figures positive.
In the first nine months, VW’S sales were up 5.6 per cent year-on-year at 2.89 million units.
PSA added almost 55 per cent, at 1.93 million, thanks in large part to its acquisition of Opel. Renault saw 6.5 per cent growth to 1.28 million vehicles.
Meanwhile Fiat and BMW both reported small decreases, while Daimler’s sales were down 4.5 per cent.