Production of Renault Twingo, other French minicars up thanks to scrappage plans

German car sales shot up after that country started a plan that paid owners of old cars to scrap their rides and buy new ones. It worked so well that the UK and the U.S. quickly started thinking about putting similar plans in place. Automotive News Europe (subs req'd) gives us another reason (four, actually) to think that these plans work, and work well, in getting people to buy a new car.

There are scrapping incentives in four of the biggest markets in Europe (Germany, France, Italy and Spain), ANE writes, and these are leading to increased demand for small cars, especially French minicars like the Renault Twingo (up 8.9 percent) and the Citroën C1 (up 9.4 percent). Sure, overall sales are still down, but the scrappage incentives are meant to get newer, more efficient cars on the road to replace older, dirtier vehicles, and they're working. Slowly but surely.

[Source: ANE]