New car sales in Germany fell to the worst level in 20 years following the end of the country’s scrappage incentive scheme.
Sales in Germany totalled 181,500 units last month, a 4.2 per cent drop on January 2009. This followed the first monthly decline in 11 months in December. It was the worst month for sales since reunification in 1990.
Germany’s VDIK foreign car makers association predicts that sales in 2010 will be around one million units less than 2009 due to the withdrawal of scrappage. Last year 3.8m units were sold in the country, and 23 per cent of them were attributed to scrappage.
Germany was the only major European car market that saw year-on-year sales drop in January.
France saw a 14 per cent rise, Italy a 30.2 per cent increase and Spain’s sales were up 18.1 per cent.
The UK’s January sales figures are expected to be released later this week.
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Re: Worst German sales for 20 years
Does that suggest the scrappage scheme had artificially distorted the market? Surely not.....