The German new car market shrank by over 25% in August, according to industry data, exactly one year after the car scrapping bonanza came to an abrupt end.
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Germany’s auto importers association VDIK said in a statement cited by Reuters that roughly 201,000 new cars were registered with the authorities last month – a drop of 27% year on year when the government was still subsidising purchases.
Even when compared to two years ago, demand still contracted. In the eight months to the end of August, registrations fell 9.6% to 1.9m vehicles via the comparison period from 2008, when the market was not distorted by a scrapping scheme often referred to as ‘cash for clunkers’.
This time one year ago, the agency responsible for managing the programme said that all EUR5bn (US$6.40bn) in the pot of government money had been exhausted, harkening the end of a consumption craze that inflated the market to 3.81m vehicles – a level last seen in 1992.
