Frankfurt - A German government car scrappage scheme has pushed sales of Japanese-branded cars in Germany up by a third, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers' Association (JAMA) branch in Frankfurt said Thursday. To encourage new-car sales, the German government is paying owners of old cars 2,500 euros in subsidy to send them to the wrecker.
First-quarter new registrations of Japanese brands in Germany were just under 120,000 vehicles, 31 per cent more than in the comparable quarter of last year, Andreas Meckel, the JAMA chief in Frankfurt, told reporters.
For March alone, the year-on-year jump was 45.7 per cent. Meckel confirmed industry reports that demand in Germany for mini and small cars had hugely increased after the scrappage scheme came into force.
Many of the Japanese marques manufacture cars at factories in Europe.
