GTI sales to increase?

[CocoPops]

With GTE orders now on hold, and diesel sales down 17%, how much of an increase in GTI sales will we see?

GTE sales:
https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/orders-suspended-volkswagen-golf-gte

UK car sales down, led by diesel:
https://www.itv.com/news/2018-01-05/new-car-sales-uk-decline/

[Watts]

I'd have thought anyone who wanted a GTE and couldn't get one would go for a different hybrid. I'm guessing many GTE sales will be to business users due to tax but I'm not too clued up on all that so could be wrong. Sounds like they don't sell many anyway.

[Guzzle]

The GTE has recently been offered as a cheap-ish lease deal;-

https://www.whatcar.com/car-leasing/deals/volkswagen/golf/hatchback-1.4-tsi-gte-5dr-dsg/personal/2190695/?price_id=24678509

Don’t know how many they 'sold' but this is fairly low cost motoring if you're into new technologies and might go some way to explain current demand. A friend of a friend ordered one just before Christmas and is expecting it to arrive in March.

[davyk31]

The appeal of a GTE has really been to company car owners who can save a fortune on their benefit in kind tax. Given 6 month old ones have been available at pretty large reductions there didn't seem to be massive demand for them. I bought a few for my company, all up to 6 months old, last one cost £21k with 3k miles on the clock.

Suspending orders sounds more like a VW damage limitation exercise, they wouldn't have been lying about the emissions on these as well would they and have to pull sales before it all hits the fan again!!

[Jim_mk7.5]

As far as I can see, these plug-in hybrids are just to con the Gov out of tax as how many people plug them every day so they can travel 30 odd miles on electric. A friend of mine has the C350e and gets similar economy to the C200 petrol I had circa 37-40mpg. But he pays half the company car tax.

[fredgroves]

The hybrids simply have enough electric to travel the EU test distance and thats it.

After that they are lugging around several hundred kilos of extra weight, decreasing their efficiency.

However, its all done on those magic few miles and so "its greener" and less tax (for now).

Everyone I know with a plug in hybrid never plugs it in, usually because they can't at home or at work.

Its rubbish and until this technology is meaningfully better, I'm not going anywhere near it.

[fredgroves]

BTW, from autoexpress with regard to car sales and the decline of the oil burner:

...These events coincided with a sharp fall in diesel car sales over the course of 2017, they plummeted by 17.1 per cent compared with 2016 figures. In contrast, petrol car sales actually rose by 2.7 per cent.

With the vilification of diesel a recurring theme throughout 2017, it came as little surprise that the UK’s CO2 emissions average had risen from 120.1g/km to 121.0g/km - the first such rise since records began two decades ago. SMMT CEO Mike Hawes lambasted the increase as “bad for the environment and bad for the country”. Although, the switch to petrol cars with their higher CO2 emissions and fuel consumption on average will have given a boost to Government coffers in the form VAT from increased fuel sales.

Oh and despite all of the overall gloom about UK car sales, the Golf was the second best selling car model in the UK in 2017, second only to the Fiesta.