More specifically, sales in Brazil dropped 35.2 percent for the month and 39.2 percent for the quarter.
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Overall, registrations rose to 1.745 million cars from 1.652 a year earlier, according to data for the European Union (EU) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).
Volkswagen’s European first-quarter market share reached a five-year low as auto buyers snubbed the German carmaker’s efforts to resolve its emissions-cheating scandal and turned to models from BMW, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Daimler.
Analysts have said customer faith in VW’s namesake brand has been hurt by a stalled German vehicle recall and a stop sale of diesel models in the United States where seven months into the scandal, VW still lacks a technical fix for nearly 600,000 cars.
Chinese sales grew by 6.4 per cent in the three-month period. However, VW’s March performance in Britain, Europe’s second largest vehicle market, was its strongest since September.
However, Volkswagen, whose brands also include Audi, Skoda, Seat and Porsche, was still the European market leader, ACEA said, with its closest competitor, France’s PSA Group, taking market share of 10.5 percent – down from 10.7 per cent in the same quarter a year ago.
VW had at one time hoped to overtake Japanese rival Toyota as the world’s biggest carmaker in terms of sales, but the scandal has tarnished its reputation.
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The SUV segment may expand to 25 percent of Europe’s market by the end of this year from 23 percent now, Roelant de Waard, Ford’s head of sales in the region, told journalists on a conference call Thursday.
