Volkswagen floods German market before stricter emissions rules

Volkswagen hiked the number of passenger cars registered for road use with the officials by 46.2 percent in Germany last month, lifting German passenger car registrations by 24.7 percent in August, numbers from the KBA German vehicle authority revealed.

Of the 316,405 vehicles registered in Germany earlier month, only 32.6 percent went to private owners, KBA statistics revealed. VW brand registrations rose by 46.2 percent and registrations at its premium brand Audi and Porsche jumped by 45.3 percent, and 60.8 percent, KBA statistics published on Tuesday revealed.

Volkswagen had cautioned that the new Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP), that came into force in September, would reduced sales in September and October. The automaker rented multi-storey car parks and open parking lots to store the vehicles it cannot currently deliver.

From September onward, only half of Volkswagen’s 14 passenger car models are compliant with the latest standard, the automaker stated, drastically curtailing its offering in September and October.

Registrations of Mercedes passenger cars dropped 10.9 percent, where as BMW recorded a 3.1 percent rise during the same period.