Volkswagen’s chief wants to persuade the German government to extend a car purchase incentive scheme after sales rose at the end of January.
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Martin Winterkorn told business weekly WirtschaftsWoche that he would see in a meeting with chancellor Angela Merkel next week whether it would be possible to extend the incentives beyond their planned termination at the end of the year and also whether the EUR1.5bn (US$1.94bn) allocated for the programme could be increased, Reuters reported.
According to the report, German car showrooms have been filled with buyers since late January after the government started offering certificates worth EUR2,500 to all new car buyers who scrap current cars that are at least nine years old.
“It would be our wish that the scrapping incentive be prolonged,” Winterkorn was quoted as saying, adding that new orders had picked up by “a factor of three or four” compared with normal volumes in recent days.
VW consequently produced 40,000 more Polo models than originally planned and shelved plans to shorten working hours at its plant in Pamplona, Spain, he added.
Other models such as the new Golf, Scirocco and Passat were also seeing improvement, he said.
Late last month, automotive industry group VDA said the incentive programme had brightened the 2009 outlook for the industry and that car sales could pass the 3m mark this year. It had forecast 2.9m sales earlier, Reuters noted.
General Motors Europe’s Opel was also keen to see the programme extended after seeing retail car sales rise in January, a GM official told the news agency.
