New car registrations in Germany, Europe's biggest auto market, swelled 40 percent in June to 427,000 units as motorists continued to cash in on government incentives to junk old cars and buy new ones. That brought new car sales in the first half of the year to nearly 2.06 million units, a gain of 26 percent to a record even as demand plummets in other major markets, data compiled by the VDIK car importers association showed on Thursday.
"However one should expect that growth in the months ahead will not reach the record levels of the first half," it said in a statement.
Automakers' group VDA on Thursday increased its forecast for 2009 new car registrations to over 3.5 million from over 3.1 million previously, saying there were early indications of global car markets bottoming out, although the crisis was not over.
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