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All of the Group's brands have once again lost enough new listings, as shown by statistics released Friday by the Federal Motor Transport Authority. Only consolation: the situation in September was much worse for the VW group.
The five leading brands of the group (VW, Audi, Skoda, Seat and Porsche) met in October to create nearly 72,000 new pbadenger car registrations. Compared to the same month last year, this is a drop of almost 28%. In September, the least was still about 61% compared to the same month last year.
Unchanged big problems still have both Audi and Porsche brands. As in September, the two Southern German subsidiaries lost more than 70% of their new listings compared to the same month of last year.
The Volkswagen brand shows a slight upward trend, with a decline of almost 19% (September: under 61.9), Seat with less 12.5% (54.9) and Skoda with less 8.8 % (43, 6). Audi is so late compared to the other brands of the group, mainly because of the delay of the internal investigation into the diesel case.
The VW group had already warned in advance that the October numbers would still be bad. CFO Frank Witter announced at a teleconference on Tuesday that there remained WLTP standards conversion issues. Only in the next few months are things better.
"In November and December, we will return to normal," said the CFO. Volkswagen will also reduce its variety, which will facilitate conversion to the new registration standards.
Since the deadline of 1 September, only cars meeting the more stringent WLTP standards can be sold in Europe. They are considered more realistic than the previously used test standards ("NEDC"). At reporting date, only a small proportion of the VW Group models had undergone the new test cycle.
Gradually, more and more Volkswagen Group vehicles meet WLTP standards. At the end of the year, the different brands of the Group wanted to get through most of them. Due to problems with the WLTP technology, production in the various VW factories also had to be stopped daily.
Other manufacturers also suffer from drops
In the coming days, registration numbers for other European countries will be published. German authorities publish their figures relatively early. They constitute a first indicator of the evolution of the number of registrations on the continent in October. Since the new WLTP admission standards apply across the EU, a similar pattern to that observed in Germany should be observed in the other European states.
In Germany, WLTP problems are not only readable on the VW group registration numbers. In October, the declines were greater for Nissan (-51%), Renault (-36%) and Land Rover (-35%).
In other major German brands, it rose again in October. After September, Mercedes (plus 19%) and BMW (over 25) again report growth. The whole of the German new car market fell by 7% in October. In September, the least was still at 30%. In November and December, the industry as a whole calculates again with increases.
However, with the last two months of the year, the German car industry will not be able to compensate for the deep hole of the WLTP that occurred during the summer months. The Automotive Industry Association (VDA) calculates for the current year automobile production with a minus 7% to 5.3 million vehicles. According to VDA figures, exports are expected to fall by 7% to 4.1 million vehicles.
At the end of October, current order intake in Germany and abroad was below the level of the previous year. Automakers hope to offset declines in Europe by growth in other parts of the world.
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