The latest data shows that 272,500 new passenger cars were registered last month, up 4.8% on September 2014.

Year to date, around 2.41 million passenger cars have been registered, up 5.5%. The VDIK member companies have maintained their market share at a steady 35.7% during that period.

The figures also show no slowdown in demand for diesel cars, with registrations of around 127,600 units last month, up 7.7% over the same month last year. The first nine months of the year saw more than 1,153,000 registrations of diesel-powered passenger cars, which is up 6%.  

The VDIK figures also show that the fleet market was a major contributor to the general rise in registrations in comparison to the private market, which softened more than 5% compared to September 2014. Year to date, around 833,500 new private registrations were made, down 1.4% on the same period in 2014.

VDIK president Volker Lange said: “The passenger car market is continuing its positive course even after 9 months. This is not, however, owed to private registrations as fleet registrations are continuing to contribute substantially to this positive development. With an expected 580,000 new registrations from January to September, they are up around 11 percent over the same period last year. I assume that the positive development of new registrations can be continued in the fourth quarter of 2015, as well.”