German new car registrations down 4.2 percent in January

New car registrations in Germany fell in January for the second month in a row, bucking the trend in other major European markets where sales are growing thanks to government incentives.

The VDIK foreign carmakers association said registrations fell 4.2 percent on January 2009 to 181,500 vehicles, the weakest monthly total since German unification in 1990 and the drop came even though sales had already shrunk 14 percent in January 2009.

As widely predicted Demand in Germany has slumped sharply since a 5 billion euro ($6.96 billion) government vehicle scrapping scheme ran out of funds at the start of September, and declining orders are now starting to feed through to new car registration statistics.

The VDIK foreign carmakers association forecast back in December that German new-car registrations for 2010 would sink to between 2.8 million and 2.9 million vehicles from about 3.8 million in 2009, when government incentives fuelled a 23 percent gain in the market.

This forecast range is roughly in line with the expectations of rival German automaker association VDA for 2.75 million to 3.0 million and these estimates are below the 3.09 million cars registered two years ago, which was the lowest since reunification.

Source: Automotive News