DETROIT (AP) – Volkswagen’s emissions-cheating scandal took a serious bite out of the company’s U.S. sales last month.
The German automaker reports that November U.S. sales fell almost 25 percent from a year ago. The company blamed the decline on stop-sale orders for diesel-powered vehicles that the government says cheated on pollution tests.
The VW brand sold just under 24,000 vehicles last month compared with almost 32,000 a year ago.
The U.S. is a relatively small market for the company. The VW brand sold 490,000 vehicles worldwide in October, 5 percent below a year ago.
VW has admitted that 482,000 2-liter diesel vehicles in the U.S. contained software that turned pollution controls on for government tests and off for real-world driving. The government says another 85,000 six-cylinder diesels also had cheating software.