Volkswagen car sales down 20 percent in UK after scandal
Volkswagen car sales in Britain dropped by almost 20 percent in November compared with a year earlier as the company's emissions testing scandal began to take a toll.
The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders says there were 12,958 Volkswagen registrations last month in the U.K., compared to 16,196 in November 2014.
That cut into Volkswagen's market share in the U.K., which dropped to 7.2 percent from 9.4 percent a year earlier.
Other Volkswagen Group marques, such as SEAT, Skoda and Porsche, also suffered drops in U.K. sales.
The decline was similar to seen in the United States, where Volkswagen sales plunged by almost 25 percent, hurt by the company's admission that its diesel vehicles cheated on emissions tests. Figures for the wider European Union are due on Dec. 15.
The numbers for November were closely watched in part because of a lag of several weeks between the time a car is purchased and registered. Volkswagen admitted in September it had installed computer software in 11 million cars globally that allowed it to rig emission tests.
Volkswagen has admitted that 482,000 two-liter and 85,000 six-cylinder diesel vehicles in the U.S. contained the cheating software.
In Europe, about 8.5 million cars have the cheating software, though there is no confirmation they cheated on tests.
The SMMT said Friday that Volkswagen's decline contrasted with the overall industry's year-on-year increase in registrations of 3.8 percent.
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