Italian new car sales are expected to fall between 10-20% in April as the end to government car buying incentives starts to bite, Fiat brand chief executive Lorenzo Sistino said on Tuesday.
Earlier this month Italian study group Promotor said it expected the Italian market to start contracting from April as the order backlog from incentives runs down. Italian incentives stopped at the end of 2009.
“We are seeing a double-digit fall … 10-20 percent,” Sistino told Reuters on the sidelines of the launch of the Alfa Romeo Giulietta which goes on sale next month.
March Italian car sales were up 19.6%, benefiting from orders when incentives were still in place.
Alfa brand chief Harald Wester said he aims to sell 100,000 Giuliettas a year when sales are running at full pace from 2011.
