Dieselgate: Volkswagen Euro sales stumble

The European car market grew for the 26th consecutive month in October, but not for the embattled Volkswagen Group.

Wary of both CO2 and NOx emissions cheating scandals, customers shied away from the Volkswagen Group’s three volume brands, forcing the conglomerate to contract 0.8 per cent in a market that grew 2.9 percent compared to last October.

Spanish subsidiary Seat took the group’s biggest hit, ebbing away by 11.2 per cent, while Skoda fell 2.9 per cent and Volkswagen itself was down 0.4 per cent in the first full sales month since the Dieselgate scandal broke in early September.

Globally, Volkswagen brand sales fell 5.3 per cent in October after sliding by four per cent in September as the scandal, which saw it systematically cheat on both NOx and CO2 emissions tests, widened. Volkswagen Group sales dropped 3.5 per cent globally.

Volkswagen insisted this wasn’t necessarily related to a drop in demand, though, but rather its temporary halt on the sales of diesel passenger car models in key markets.

Despite being directly in the middle of the crises, Audi sales continued to grow, though not at the same rate as its rivals at BMW and Mercedes-Benz. It grew 4.1 per cent inside the EU and two per cent globally, while BMW and Mercedes-Benz scooted away at 13.7 and 10.8 per cent respectively in the EU.

Porsche cushioned the blow for the Volkswagen Group, growing 13.9 per cent over last October, while the rest of the lower-volume group brands (Bentley and Lamborghini) rose 4.2 per cent on average.

It cushioned its European and US crunches with boosted sales in China, a land largely unaffected by diesel car sales, where it grew 1.5 per cent, but was also hit by stumbling economies in Brazil and Russia, where its sales fell 47 per cent and 31 per cent respectively.

Of the volume players in Europe, Opel had a poor month, with its 2.5 per cent slide dropping it behind the BMW Group (including MINI), FCA (Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Jeep, Maserati, Ferrari, Lancia) and Daimler (Mercedes-Benz and smart) in October.

Europe’s number two car-maker, PSA, fell 1.5 per cent for the month, with Citroen’s 6.3 per cent fall dragging it down despite modest growth at Peugeot, while Toyota and Nissan also slid slightly.

The Volkswagen Group still lead the world’s car makers with 8.26 million cars sold through the first 10 months of the year, and 2.8 million of those were in Europe (up 6.5 per cent on the same period in 2014).

There were some stunning rises in Europe for the rest of the world’s car makers compared to October, 2014, with smart leading the percentage rises on 215.6 per cent. No real surprise given it had nothing new to sell last year.

In any other month, Jaguar’s 93.6 per cent leap or Jeep’s 69.9 per cent jump might have taken the honours.

The UK market dropped fractionally (1.5 per cent) in October, though rises in Italy (8.6 per cent), Spain (5.2 per cent), Germany (1.1 per cent) and France (1.0 per cent) saw 1.104 million cars delivered in October.

Europe has swallowed up 11,523,903 new cars in the first 10 months of the year, driven by growth in its largest markets like the UK (6.4 per cent), France (5.7 per cent) and Germany (5.1 per cent), while Ireland (29.9 per cent), Portugal (27.5 per cent), Spain (20.5 per cent), the Czech Republic (19.7 per cent), Italy (14.7 per cent) had the headline-grabbing percentage rises.

October 2015 sales (Europe)
1 Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen, Seat, Skoda, Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Bentley, Bugatti) 288,221
2 PSA (Peugeot, Citroen) 120,222
3 Renault Group (inc. Dacia) 108,617
4 Ford 79,116
5 BMW (inc. MINI) 79,823
6 FCA (inc Fiat, Maserati, Ferrari, Jeep, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Chrysler) 70,556
7 Daimler (inc. Mercedes-Benz, smart) 70,650
8 Opel 68,837
9 Toyota (inc. Lexus) 47,951
10 Nissan 40,307

Year-to-date October 2015 (Europe)
1 Volkswagen Group (Volkswagen, Seat, Skoda, Audi, Porsche, Lamborghini, Bentley, Bugatti) 2,983,829
2 PSA (Peugeot, Citroen) 1,242,196
3 Renault Group (inc. Dacia) 1,117,754
4 Ford 863,227
5 Opel 798,661
6 BMW (inc. MINI) 773,463
7 FCA (inc Fiat, Maserati, Ferrari, Jeep, Alfa Romeo, Lancia, Chrysler) 738,485
8 Daimler (inc. Mercedes-Benz, smart) 696,883
9 Toyota (inc. Lexus) 506,470
10 Nissan 477,668