While Volkswagen Group reported in September in spite of the emissions scandal which broke mid-month, the picture is not quite as rosy for the German automaker in Canada.
Even before the scandal broke, the majority of Volkswagen brand cars sold in North America were not diesel powered 鈥� and only one Audi model, the A3, was even available with the 2.0L turbodiesel equipped with the emissions defeating software from parent company Volkswagen in Canada 鈥� but the company鈥檚 reputation overall has been severely tarnished by the scandal.
As a whole, the Canadian auto industry鈥檚 September 2015 sales output was 3.7 per cent larger than September 2014鈥檚 volume. For the Volkswagen brand, however, September volume was down 19.6 per cent as the brand sold 5,128 vehicles in month. For the year as a whole, Volskwagen brand sales in Canada are still up 8.6 per cent compared to 2014.
The Audi brand also saw big year-over-year losses in September 2015 with a reported decline in sales of 13.2 per cent compared to September 2014. Audi is Canada鈥檚 third-best-selling premium brand for the year, but finished September as just the fifth best-selling premium brand with just 2,161 sales in the country.
The full impact of the scandal on sales and the extent to which Volkswagen is able to counter the expected drop in volume with incentives to dealers and customers will be more thoroughly revealed when October鈥檚 sales results arrive in early November.
A is available at Autofocus.ca.
-- with files from Timothy Cain
