VW Emissions Scandal: EU Sales Fall in October 2015

VW sales and market share in the EU dipped in October 2015, suggesting that the emissions scandal might have had an impact.

Volkswagen Group’s total EU sales were 0.5% down from October 2014, while market share slipped to 24.9% from 25.37%.

The data from the Association of European Carmakers (ACEA) also showed a slowdown in EU growth as a whole.

Just more than 1.1 million cars were sold in the EU last month, up 2.9% on last year but 9.8% down on September.

Analysts suggested that buyers may been put off purchases while they await the outcome of investigations into the VW scandal, in which it was discovered that Europe’s largest automaker was falsifying emissions tests.

VW’s mass market brands suffered falls in sales last month, with Seat sales down 11.4%, Skoda’s down 2.6%, and the carmaker’s own-brand vehicles down 0.2%.

However, premium brands Audi and Porsche recorded healthy growth in the EU, with sales last month rising 4.1% and 13.9% respectively.

For the first 10 months of the year, EU new registrations were up by 8.2% to 11.523 million vehicles.