German car sales rose in November, recovering from an earlier dip and setting the stage for a strong end to the year, official data showed Friday. A total of 276,567 new cars were registered last month, up 1.5 percent on the same month last year, according to the KBA transport authority. The uptick is welcome news for the industry after fewer selling days in October saw car registrations, seen as a key indicator of demand in Europe's top economy, plunge by 5.6 percent.
The VDA carmakers' federation separately said that for the whole of 2016 it expected car sales to grow by five percent to nearly 3.4 million vehicles, "the highest level since the start of the decade", president Matthias Wissmann said in a statement. Sales were boosted by Germany's robust economy, he said, with low unemployment and high wages pushing up demand, while consumers also took advantage of cheap financing options. "This is a good year for the automobile industry," Wissmann said.
The VDA expects "similarly high" sales in 2017, he added. Despite the dieselgate scandal, market leader Volkswagen managed to retain nearly 20 percent of the German car market between January and November, though sales were down 3.4 percent compared to a year earlier, the KBA said. The VW group was plunged into crisis last year after it admitted to installing emissions cheating software in some 11 million diesel vehicles worldwide to make them seem less polluting than they were. Other brands owned by the group - including Audi, Porsche, Seat and Skoda - have all sold more cars so far this year than over the same period in 2015, suggesting that German consumers are largely unfazed by the scandal.
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