November car sales rise in Europe; 2010 fears linger

Governments stepped in to help struggling carmakers earlier this year, implementing scrapping incentive schemes whereby drivers get cash bonuses for trading in old cars for new models. However, as the schemes gradually dwindle —the scheme in Germany, Europe's largest car market, has already finished — carmakers are worried about a second sales dip.

“The basis of comparison last year was ultra-weak, so we can expect that November and December too should be ultra-strong months across Europe,” said Societe Generale analayst Eric-Alain Michelis.

In France, car sales rose 48.4 percent in November and 7.6 percent in the first 11 months, carmakers' association the CCFA said.

Elsewhere car sales were also on the rise.

Italian industry minister Claudio Scajola told reporters after meeting Fiat Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne that Italy car sales rose 30 percent in November.

Fiat's Marchionne said after the meeting tha Fiat was sticking to its plan to stop production at its Termini Imerese plant and that an annual car production figure in Italy of 900,000 units was “not astronomical”.

In Spain, which introduced its scrapping incentive scheme in May, car sales rose 37.3 percent in November.

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