Car sales in Europe increased significantly in October. The number of newly registered vehicles has increased by 8.7 percent to 1.2 million units, said the industry association Acea in Brussels. In 2018, sales slumped by more than 7 percent due to the introduction of new emissions regulations (WLTP).
The Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) in Berlin also pointed to the "statistical effect". After the bottlenecks as a result of the new exhaust gas test procedure WLTP a year ago, "now the full availability of the models is noticeable".
In China, sales fell again in October according to VDA data. At 1.9 million vehicles, the market volume was 6 percent down on the previous year. In the first ten months of the year, 16.9 million cars were sold, a decline of 11 percent.
Volkswagen expands market share significantly
Four of the top five European markets rose in October. The plus in Germany was the clearest with 12.7 percent. Other places were followed by France (plus 8.7 percent), Italy (plus 6.7 percent) and Spain (plus 6.3 percent). The United Kingdom suffers from the planned EU exit, where the sold number fell by 6.7 percent.
Among the German producers stood out the Volkswagen Group (VW). He recorded an increase of newly registered vehicles by almost a third to more than 300,000. The market share thus jumped from 20.8 to 25.1 percent. At BMW, the sales increase was still at 2.9 percent, while Daimler even had to accept a minus of 0.2 percent. Opel and Vauxhall slumped by more than a quarter.