Big boost to German new car sales in August

German new car registrations, a key indicator of consumer demand, saw a steep rise in August, industry data showed on Friday.

With 245,076 new cars on the road in August 2016, the figure was 8.3 percent higher than the same month in 2015, the KBA transport authority said.

The result was boosted by two additional working days in August compared with 2015, the German Association of the Automobile Industry (VDA) said.

"Positive overall economic development in Germany and the good employment situation are also contributing at the moment," VDA president Matthias Wissmann said in a statement.

Analysts at consultants Ernst & Young noted that correcting for the calendar effects, the increase in registrations was smaller, at 4.3 percent.

August's result marks a return to growth for car sales after a blip in July, when fewer cars were sold than over the same month in 2015 -- which the VDA also put down to calendar effects.

The KBA said that 836 plug-in hybrid cars and 895 all-electric vehicles were registered in August, representing increases of 46.7 percent and 7.7 percent over August 2015.

Figures for electric car sales are under close scrutiny after the government introduced subsidies of up to 4,000 euros ($4,500) for pure electrics and 3,000 euros for plug-in hybrids earlier this year.

German carmakers saw a seven-percent increase in registrations overall to 169,800 in August, the VDA reported, while foreign manufacturers' share rose by 11 percent to 75,300.

Among German brands, Volkswagen, Mercedes, Porsche and Mini all recorded double-digit percentage increases over August last year.

Volkswagen remained the biggest-selling brand in Germany, accounting for 19.9 percent of all new cars registered in August.

"Volkswagen was able to stop its downwards trend in August and win back market share," the EY analysts noted, after months in which the manufacturer had suffered from the blow to its reputation over a diesel emissions cheating scandal revealed in September 2015.

Taking into account the VW group's other brands -- ranging from lower-end Skoda to luxury Audi -- the group accounted for 37.1 percent of the registrations last month, they calculated.

August's figures bring the total number of new cars registered in Germany since January to just under 2.3 million -- 6.0 percent higher than the same period in 2015.

Over the first eight months of the year, German carmakers produced almost 3.9 million vehicles -- 2.0 percent more than over the same period in 2015 -- and exported almost 3.0 million, a rise of 1.0 percent, the VDA said.