Merkel says German auto industry has enough government support

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday said German government’s coronavirus relief package contained a lot of help for the automobile industry of the country after her conservative CSU allies renewed a proposal for incentives for petrol cars.

Germany has a multi-billion-euro recovery plan to spur clean driving, with incentives for electric vehicles. But the government this year has rebuffed the auto industry’s lobbying efforts and stopped short of starting a scrappage scheme to increase sales of new combustion-engine cars.

During August 2020, registrations dropped 20 percent compared with August 2019. This was a huge drop in sales compared to July, when registrations dropped only 5.4 percent year-on-year, the report published by the Federal Motor Transport Authority showed.