Volkswagen sees US sales fall nearly 25% in November

The German carmaker has laid the blame for this drop in sales on the emissions-cheating scandal that broke in September when U.S. researchers found Volkswagen engineers had deliberately gamed software to fool USA emissions tests.

Although the battered brand hit its deadline last week in submitting its plan to fix four-cylinder diesel vehicles affected by the emissions scandal in Europe, VW has yet to roll out details for its American fixes, and customers could simply be fed up at this point – offering another explanation for why sales dropped so dramatically.

VW froze sales of diesel auto models in the United States on November 4 after new accusations on the use of software that cheats on emissions tests. “In November, Volkswagen halted sales of another 85,000 vehicles with three-liter diesel engines amid allegations they, too, contained defeat devices”.

Altogether, sales of the company’s VW, Audi and Bentley brands fell about 16% during the month.

“I had more cars that I can’t sell parked in the back lot than I had in the front lot for sale”, said Alan Brown, who co-owns two VW dealerships in the Dallas area and is chairman of the brand’s US dealer council. The comment during a closed-door meeting with the government came even as heavy industries minister Anant Geete said that the violation was detected when on-road vehicles were tested and described it as “a well thought-out crime”. The automaker said it was the best November for the vehicle.

Some people may see the emissions crisis as the time to get a deal, but couldn’t find what they wanted, said Jessica Caldwell, an analyst with automotive pricing website Edmunds.com. “All necessary technical measures will be implemented in the vehicles at no cost to the customers”, the statement said.

Government last month issued a notice to Volkswagen after testing agency ARAI found “significant variations” in on-road emission levels in the automaker’s diesel models of Jetta, Octavia, Audi A4 and Audi A6 in India.

We spoke to a representative from VW India and he told us that the recall was to make sure that the Indian cars were running the same level of technical updates that Volkswagen cars elsewhere in the world are.

In addition to its observations, findings and outlines of possible solutions on the EA 189 engines to the Government of India and ARAI, Volkswagen Group India has also presented its reasons for why it believes that its cars are not equipped with the infamous “defeat device”.

When asked if Volkswagen will face any penalty or action, he said MoRTH will take a decision on the matter in a couple of days.

In the U.S., vehicle manufacturers follow a self-certification process where no third-party approval is required in terms of homologation or independent checks.