European car sales drop sharply due to impact of WLTP tests

The European car market suffered the biggest monthly decline of the decade so far in September, with the impact of the new WLTP emissions testing regime contributing to a 23.4% decline in year-on-year sales.

Across Europe 1.12 million vehicles were registered last month, according to data from industry analysts JATO, a 343,000 fall from September 2017. The sharp fall had been expected due to the ongoing problems of readying cars to meet the new and tougher WLTP tests, with JATO noting that only 57% of versions previously sold currently meet the new test conditions.

New WLTP tests: what you need to know

With registrations spiking in August as manufacturers cleared stock ahead of WLTP coming into force on September 1, overall European sales are still up 2.3% year-on-year.

JATO analyst Felipe Munoz said research showed a direct link between the availability of WLTP-homologated models and registration figures. “We will continue to see registrations decline so long as a large portion of the market’s versions remain unavailable under the new test conditions,” he said.

“The big question now is how long the drop will last, which will depend on how long it takes car makers to homologate the models they want to keep on the market.”

The Volkswagen Group has particularly struggled with readying cars for WLTP, which contributed to the PSA Group – Peugeot, Citroën, DS and Vauxhall/Opel – becoming the best-selling car maker in Europe. That makes September the first month in nearly eight years that the VW Group has not topped European sales charts.

Vauxhall/Opel had a particularly strong month: while it’s September year-on-year sales were down 12%, its 80,920 registrations were enough to make it the best-selling brand in Europe, narrowly ahead of Ford (80,813). By contrast, Volkswagen’s sales fell by 53% to 74,469, with a particularly sharp decline in Germany. Audi also struggled, with its sales falling by 60%.