Strasbourg, 12/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - The vehicle logistics sector supports scrapping incentives for cars in order to correct the devastating effect that the economic crisis has had on new car sales. The Association of European Vehicle Logistics (ECG) has expressed alarm at the low, almost zero, forecasts for new car sales in Europe. It suggests that European governments bring in scrapping incentives for vehicles that have been in use for over ten years. ECG President Costantino Baldissara points out that “by removing some of the 55 million cars aged ten years old or more from Europe's roads, they will slash emissions and improve safety, striking a blow for the environment in which we all live and work”.
Baldissara continues by saying that “scrapping incentives have worked before to underpin demand in difficult times, easing the industry through the storm until sales revived. Carefully structured, they can work again”. While the “auto industry is a major employer and a generator of growth whose health is vital to that of the European economy as a whole”, Baldissara sounds a note of caution, saying: “unless we take action to stimulate demand now, we risk a devastating impact on jobs and economic activity across the industry, with knock-on effects for the wider European economy”. (MD/transl.jl)