More than 300,000 diesel vehicles sit in lots, unsold, in Germany due to fears that diesel cars may be outlawed there because of health and environmental concerns, according to Bloomberg:
Germany’s back and forth over potential bans for diesel cars in cities is sapping demand for the vehicles and causing a backlog of used models on dealer lots that’s swelled to some 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion).
A deal earlier this month between Germany and Volkswagen AG, Daimler AG and BMW AG to upgrade 5 million newer diesel cars and offer trade-in incentives on older models hasn’t eliminated concerns about pollution from the technology. Citing government tests, German Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks told reporters this week that the planned software upgrades are “insufficient” for many cities to meet the legal limit for smog-inducing nitrogen oxides in the air.
As a result of the doubts surrounding diesel’s future, about 300,000 used vehicles fitted for Euro-5 emissions standards that were on sale as new cars as recently as September 2015, are piling up, according to a survey published Thursday by German car dealer association ZDK. The poll assumed an average price of 15,000 euros per car.
“The vehicles are hard to sell at the moment because customers are uncertain,” Thomas Peckruhn, vice president of the association, said in an emailed statement. “We need clear signals from government if and under what conditions these vehicles might be affected by driving bans.”
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