Audi Defies Demand Drop as Companies Give Workers Wheels: Cars

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, Volkswagen AG and Mercedes-Benz are all likely to post record sales for 2012 even as demand for cars in Europe has tumbled. Deutsche Telekom AG is partly to thank for that.

Germany’s largest phone company, which owns 38,000 vehicles in its home country -- or more than one for every two employees there -- is among corporate car buyers taking advantage of tax breaks that have propped up the auto market. With private demand slackening, cars bought by companies for employee use accounted for 32 percent of German auto sales last year, according to the country’s motor vehicle office, KBA, up from 27 percent in 2010.