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Nissan sees boost from scrappage

Nissan has seen orders soar since the introduction of the Government’s car scrappage scheme.

The Japanese giant sold more cars last month than in June 2008, which was particularly good news for the firm’s Wearside plant, with the models produced at Sunderland accounting for the majority of the orders.

Nissan took orders for 7,149 new cars last month, a rise of almost 10% on the previous June’s figure of 6,574.

The four Wearside-built models – the Qashqai, Qashqai +2, Note and Micra - accounted for more than four-fifths of the orders.

Paul Willcox, UK Managing Director, said: “We’re delighted with Nissan’s outstanding sales success in June, especially given we were one of the few brands to show a positive growth.

“It’s also great news for Sunderland, with 83 per cent of the sales being cars manufactured at our plant.”

The scrappage scheme – introduced in the last budget – provides a cash incentive for motorists to scrap older, less environmentally-friendly cars in favour of newer, greener models.

The moves comes after similar schemes across Europe proved highly successful in stimulating an auto industry that has born the brunt of the economic downturn.

Nationwide, 29,796 vehicles have been registered under the scheme since its launch, and scrappage accounted for 9.7 per cent of June’s new car registrations total.

Trade body the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said the scheme was proving popular and working well.

“The scrappage incentive scheme is working well and has encouraged a lot more people back into showrooms,” said SMMT chief executive, Paul Everitt. “In the coming months, we will see an increase in the rate of deliveries and this will confirm further progress on the industry’s long road to recovery.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .