Ford was No.1 in Europe for March with sales exceeding 192,000 vehicles

With new-car sales in Europe growing by 16.1% in March, Ford Motor Co. gets the recognition for being its top-selling brand for the month. But following the termination of scrappage incentives in its key markets,

Ford is asking governments to consider coming up with new incentives to maintain its sales. Wolfgang Schneider, Ford of Europe’s vice president for legal, governmental and environmental affairs, said that even as Ford has had a great sales performance in March and in the first quarter, the next few months would pose a challenge due to the phasing out of these scrappage schemes. Schneider asserted further that while all the scrappage programs in the western European markets will be over by the end of May, the crisis is not yet over. Schneider isn’t expecting the governments to renew the schemes but only that they consider other sales incentives, including VAT reductions and other tax breaks to urge small and medium sized enterprises to get new vehicles. In a conference call, Schneider said that tax breaks would benefit smaller companies as well as the general economy and the car industry. Roelant de Waard, Ford of Europe head of sales, said that the total market for new cars in western Europe is expected to drop considerably to between 13.5 million and 14.5 million in 2010, from 15.85 million last year.