SA's not alone! German new car sales stumble in October

Frankfurt - German new car sales saw a sharp dip in October after two months of strong growth, official data showed on Wednesday (November 3).

Albeit the European market is significantly larger than South Africa's, it's still interesting to know what's happening in the global car market.

A 5.6% fall in registrations compared with the same month in 2015 saw just over 262 700 new cars hit the tarmac, the KBA transport authority reported.

From growth to slump

The agency had recorded increases in August and September of 8.3 and 9.4% in Europe's largest car market, boosted by increased consumption by private households.

Registrations over the whole year remain positive, with a total of 2 818 507 cars registered in Germany from January to October, an increase of 4.9% over the same period in 2015.

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October's data saw fewer new registrations for all German carmakers.

Scandal-hit Volkswagen, which in September 2015 admitted to installing emissions cheating software on 11 million cars worldwide, retained the largest share of the market at almost 19% for its own-branded cars.

But at almost 50 000, it sold just under 20% fewer vehicles than in October last year.

All-round decline

Over the whole year to October, Volkswagen sales were down by 3%, worse than the 1% fall recorded over the year to September.

Luxury carmaker Porsche, a VW subsidiary, was the only other German brand to suffer a double-digit fall in sales in October, losing 13.3% to land at 2 276 units.

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Meanwhile, VW-owned Audi's sales fell 2.9%, Daimler-made Mercedes-Benz fell 3.5%, and BMW lost 2.4%.

But there were double-digit increases for a number of foreign carmakers, with luxury brand Jaguar more than doubling its numbers to 712.

Toyota, Peugeot, Renault and Alfa Romeo were also among non-German brands to boost their sales.