European vehicle sales race ahead, but VW stuck in slow gear

VW has been embroiled in scandal since September, when it admitted it had installed emission-cheating software in 11-million diesel engine vehicles worldwide. It faces the prospect of paying tens of billions of pounds in fines and legal costs for rigging its cars to falsify tests for nitrous oxide emissions.

November sales data show that VW hasn’t cast a cloud over other German carmakers. In October, sales had increased only 2.9 percent.

Sales of new cars from Volkswagen were up 2.8% in November, while sales of the VW group, which includes Audi, Porsche and SEAT, rose 4.1%. BMW Group’s volume grew by 11 percent with 12 percent increase at Mini and an 11 percent rise in BMW vehicle sales.

Automakers offered an average 13 percent off the sticker price in the country, with GM’s Opel discounting by 15 percent, Ford by 15 percent and French manufacturers Renault and PSA by a combined 15 percent, according to trade magazine Autohaus PulsSchlag.

Europe’s passenger auto registration growth increased notably in November, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association reported Tuesday.

In the European Union as a whole, passenger vehicle registrations posted a 13.7% increase in November year on year, marking the 27th month of increases, according to ACEA, totalling 1,085,259 units sold during the month.

The 1.08 million vehicles sold in November this year is still far from the more than 1.2 million vehicles sold during that month in 2006 and 2007, before the global economic crisis struck. “Spain (25.4%), Italy (23.5%) and France (11.3%) posted double-digit percentage gains, followed by Germany (8.9%) which also performed better than in November 2014”, said ACEA. For the first 11 months of the year, sales rose by 29.8 percent.

That’s compared to a 14 percent growth rate industry wide.