Because vehicle deliveries typically occur several weeks after purchase decisions, the full repercussions of the scandal, which started with VW’s admission on Sept 18 that diesel-engine emission tests had been rigged, are expected to become more apparent in November registration figures.
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FCA’s overall sales rose 7.7%.
A major complaint in recent months has been the difference between the level of emissions detected during laboratory testing and “real-world” driving.
The figures follow a rise of 8.3 per cent during the previous month for the firm and indicate the wider financial implications of the company’s rigged emissions process, which saw it install software in certain cars to cheat tests.
In the company’s first substantive ad campaign since it was rocked by controversy in September, Volkswagen is running a stark print ad with a simple letter to its customers in about 30 newspapers around the United States including the NY Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal .
In fact, a number of Volkswagen’s biggest competitors took an even bigger beating in October, with arch-rival Toyota seeing sales down 4 percent compared with a year ago. Coupled with the ongoing problems facing Volkswagen’s diesel operations, the automaker has a long and convoluted regulatory path ahead of it.
Volkswagen has yet to develop a solution for fixing the emissions on vehicles that utilized a defeat device to fool regulators into recording low emissions values on certain diesel vehicles.
Louise Ellman, chairwoman of the Transport Committee, said: “The Volkswagen scandal has raised serious concerns about whether vehicle type approval testing is fit for objective”. The company has been providing thousands of dollars in incentives to potential buyers to help keep USA sales alive.
It comes as more than 9,000 Irish-registered VW, Audi, Skoda and Seat vehicles are likely to face increased tax liabilities due to being underrated for Carbon dioxide emissions.
Many owners are angry at the company for cheating because they paid extra for the cars to be environmentally sensitive without losing peppy acceleration. One Audi model was included, the A1, a subcompact.
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“The main factor in this deceleration in fortunes appears to be the fallout from VW’s emissions scandal”, Kristina Church and Charles Coldicott, analysts at Barclays (LSE: BARC.L – news), said last week.
