US automaker Ford has asked Berlin for aid but the government is divided on how to help Germany's key but troubled industrial sector.
After General Motors' German subsidiary Opel, a second US group implanted in Germany has thus turned to Chancellor Angela Merkel for aid.
“We sent a letter on the same day as Opel,” a Ford spokesman told the Sueddeutsche Zeiting newspaper on Wednesday.
Both auto makers have pressed the government for tax measures that would boost the sale of new cars, but neither has received a reponse for the time being, the report said.
The head of Audi, the high-end line made by the Volkswagen group, said he favoured a “junkyard bonus” to encourage households to get rid of older cars, in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily.
Rudolf Stadler also said he was concerned that competition could be distorted if US car makers got help from Washington.
“If the United States supports its auto industry, the European Union would be well-advised to do the same,” Stadler said.
US President-elect Barack Obama has indicated that he wants to support GM, Ford and other US auto manufacturers.
The German automobile importers federation VDIK also called for a bonus for households that junked old vehicles, saying it would be an “incitement to trade in old clunkers for new cars that respect the environment.”
In Germany, the idea of a junkyard bonus is also supported by some within the Social Democratic Party (SPD) that participates in a coalition government with Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
“Different things have been evoked,” including such a bonus, SPD parliamentary group leader Thomas Oppermann told German television on Wednesday.
Last week, Berlin unveiled an economic support plan that included the suspension of a tax on new cars for up to two years.
But owing to opposition from SPD lawmakers who argued that the measure ran counter to the government's environmental protection objectives, the time span was reduced to six months.
“It would be sensible to offir such a possibility in a concentrated timeframe, to stimulate auto purchases quickly,” government spokesman Thomas Steg told a press conference Wednesday, while evoking “explanations and precisions” in the past few days.
VDIK slammed the government's apparent change of heart, criticising the “permanent to and fros that foster uncertainty among consumers and undermine the already very bad automobile outlook.”
