FRANKFURT: New car registrations in Germany, a key measure of demand in one of the most important sectors of Europe's top economy, rose strongly in November, data showed Tuesday, appearing to shrug off the Volkswagen pollution-cheating scandal.
A total of 272,000 new cars were registered last month, an increase of nine percent compared with the figure for the same month last year, according to data compiled by the automakers' federation VDA.
Taking the 11 months to November, new car registrations advanced by five percent to 2.959 million vehicles, the statement continued.
And looking ahead to the whole of 2015, VDA is pencilling in sales of 3.17 million vehicles, or an increase of four percent over the figure for 2014.
For 2016, VDA is forecasting a further modest rise to 3.2 million units "if the framework conditions do not deteriorate," said federation chief Matthias Wissmann.
Turning to the massive pollution-cheating scandal at German auto giant Volkswagen, which has to fitting 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide with sophisticated software that can skew emission test results, Wissmann said the affair had undermined confidence in the automobile sector.
Nevertheless, it should not have too many repercussions on sales, nor would it discredit diesel technology in general, Wissmann insisted.
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