Global Car Sales Drop 9%

Worldwide sales of light-duty vehicles shrank 9% to 7.89 million units last month, according to LMC Automotive.

On an annualized basis, September sales slipped to 90.2 million units from a record 99.7million vehicles in August (chart).

Last month’s volume was hurt by Europe’s adoption of the new WLTP emission test protocol, which took effect on Sept. 1. The changeover pulled sales forward into August, as consumers took advantage of carmaker efforts to clear out inventories of pre-WLTP cars.

LMC says the WLTP caused year-on-year sales in western Europe to plummet 21% to 1.23 million in September. But sales also shrank in China (-10% to 2.41 million units) and the U.S. (-5% to 1.44 million vehicles).

Global sales through the first nine months of 2018 rose 2% to 71.15 million units, representing an annualized rate of 96.54 million.