German new car sales up about 12pc in January

BERLIN: New car sales in Germany jumped about 12 percent last month to about 270,000 vehicles, the highest level for January in nearly two decades, an auto industry source said.

But the downtrend in registrations of diesel-powered cars continued with a decline of about 17 percent, the source said on Friday on condition he not be named ahead of publication of official data.

"The new year got off to a good start," the source said, noting that the increase resulted mainly from high private orders by at the end of 2017 and was not helped by additional selling days.

Germany's VDA auto industry association is expected to release official sales data for Europe's largest auto market later on Friday.