FORD MOTOR COMPANY 
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European car sales rose 6.3 percent to 1,093,565 vehicles in January, industry data showed on Tuesday, even as Europe's largest carmaker Volkswagen (>> Volkswagen AG) saw registrations of VW-branded cars fall 4 percent in the wake of a diesel emissions scandal.
VW's rivals Ford (>> Ford Motor Company) and General Motors's (>> General Motors Company) Opel/Vauxhall posted rises in sales of 11.4 percent and 12.4 percent respectively, according to car registration data for European Union (EU) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries.
The Volkswagen Group as a whole saw sales rise 1 percent in January, buoyed by a 14 percent jump in registrations for its premium Audi division, according to the figures published by European auto industry association ACEA.
In the European Union registrations rose to 1,061,150 last month, a 6.2 percent rise on a year ago and marking the 29th consecutive month of growth, ACEA said.
"When adjusted for working days, January registrations were up 11.6 percent, year-on-year the second-strongest increase for any month in the past five years," analysts at Barclays said, noting that January's sales should not be taken as a projection for the full year.
Barclays said they expect sales to grow 3.3 percent in Western Europe this year, slowing from last year's 8.9 percent, but remaining above the growth rates of other markets like the United States.
Registrations in Italy and Spain rose 17.4 percent and 12.1 percent, while the bigger markets of France, Germany and the UK posted modest single-digit gains.
"We think the European market will remain buoyant given the continued improvement in employment and household incomes, especially in southern European economies," Barclays said.
(Reporting by Edward Taylor; Editing by Maria Sheahan, Greg Mahlich)
