BERLIN, July 3 (Xinhua) -- The number of car sales in Germany has witnessed an annual increase between January and June, official figures published on Tuesday by the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) show.
According to KBA, the number of newly-registered vehicles rose by 2.9 percent to 1.84 million during the first six months of 2018 compared to the same period last year. 341,300 cars were newly-registered in June alone, marking a 4.2 percent increase compared to May.
Commenting on the findings on Tuesday, the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) highlighted that the KBA data provided evidence that carmakers in Germany were weathering recent economic headwinds well. In spite of weaker domestic growth and a swelling trade conflict between the European Union (EU) and the U.S. in Q2, domestic orders were stable, while international orders had even increased.
Nevertheless, VDA president Bernhard Mattes warned against competency in the German automotive industry and pointed to commercial risks stemming from stricter Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions limits for vehicle which will become binding in the EU from 2020 onwards. "Policymakers must not expect too much of companies or they will endanger the industrial base of Europe," Mattes said.
Additionally, Mattes expressed "great concern" over international trade policy in light of the increasingly protectionist stance adopted by U.S. President Donald Trump. Punitive import tariffs on vehicles as announced by Washington were likely to backfire as they disrupted the globe-spanning supply network of the automotive industry.
German carmakers expect to achieve record overall output of 16.7 million passenger vehicles in 2018, an increase of around 1 percent compared to the already high level of the previous year. However, the VDA noted productions for German and international customers have so far fallen by around 3 percent and 2 percent respectively between January and June.
In particular, Diesel vehicles sales and orders have slumped given the risk of the imposition of municipal driving bans to lower Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) emissions levels. The share of diesel vehicles among newly-registered cars in Germany fell from 41.3 percent during the first half of 2017 to 31.1 percent during the first half of 2018.
Regardless of fresh revelations in the ongoing emissions-cheating scandal and the arrest of Audi chief executive officer (CEO) Rupert Stadler, Mattes defended the latest variants of the motor technology on Tuesday. "The less diesel vehicles are sold, the higher CO2 emissions will be from newly-registered cars," he said.
The VDA president argued that diesel was needed in order to meet ambitious national climate policy goals set by Berlin. He further emphasized that harmful NOx emissions, released chiefly by diesel motors, had already fallen by around 70 percent since 1990.
