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Cars in the European Union must comply with the new Worldwide
Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure (WLTP) from September,
but Volkswagen has only gained regulatory clearance for seven of
its 14 main model lines.
"The new tests are more cumbersome and take two to three times
longer than in the past, even limited edition models need to be
tested separately," Volkswagen's Thomas Zahn said in a call with
journalists on Thursday.
"The coming months will be challenging for us," said Zahn, head
of sales and marketing for Volkswagen passenger cars.
Volkswagen's top-selling Golf model is among the vehicles still
waiting to be cleared by authorities, Zahn said.
He said he expected the Golf to pass the WLTP standards by the
end of September.
Shipments of cars are expected to slow down in September and
October, but pick up again in the final two months of the year.
"We expect very strong deliveries in December," Zahn said.
Carmakers including Daimler, Volkswagen and supplier Valeo have
cut profit expectations, blaming a slowdown in global sales
triggered in part by delays getting vehicles certified to the
new standard.
Analysts at Evercore ISI said the WLTP delays at the VW brand
appear to be under control since the carmaker has not resorted
to heavy discounting to keep sales flowing.
Nonetheless delays will cause profitability of the brand to drop
to around 2 percent in the third quarter, from 5.5 percent in
the second quarter, Evercore said in a note on Thursday.
(Reporting by Edward Taylor; Editing by Adrian Croft)
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