VW’s Europe Market Share Slumps to Five-Year Low on Scandal
- Carmaker’s four-month share of sales is smallest since 2011
- Mercedes posts region’s strongest growth as SUVs win buyers
VW Sets Aside $18 Billion to Pay for Diesel Scandal
Volkswagen AG’s European market share narrowed for an eighth consecutive month since the German carmaker’s admission to rigging diesel cars to cheat on emissions tests, as BMW AG and Mercedes-Benz wooed buyers with sport utility vehicles.
Volkswagen accounted for 25.4 percent of the region’s car sales in April versus 26.2 percent a year earlier, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, or ACEA, said in a statement Friday. Volkswagen’s four-month market share was 23.9 percent, the first time the figure for the period was below 24 percent since 2011. Industrywide European registrations in April jumped 9 percent to 1.32 million vehicles, outpacing the German company’s 5.3 percent increase.