Spain to offer subsidised loans to boost its green car industry
The European Union has reportedly granted Spain permission to offer another series of low-interest loans to automakers operating within its borders. The money is to be used to further various automaker's investments into products that meet the EU's environmental standards, which seems like a pretty broad standard to us. These loans are in addition to the €4 billion (£3.7 billion, $5.3 billion U.S.) of monetary assistance the Spanish government offered automakers for the protection of jobs and to minimize plant closures. There was some speculation that the European Union would put a stop to the practice of offering financial assistance to automakers by individual member countries, but in the end, the desire to support the development of environmentally friendly automobiles won out and both sets of loans were approved.
Last month, new car sales fell by over 38 percent in Spain compared to March of 2008. Although that's still bad, it's an improvement over the February's drop of nearly 50 percent, year-to-year. The improvement has been attributed to the adoption of car scrapping incentives in Spain.
[Source: Autocar]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
jharlan 12:03PM (4/03/2009)
We are turning the corner, globally.
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Tim 11:56AM (4/03/2009)
People are not buying cars because they are not "green". They are not buying cars because:
1) they can't get credit.
2) they are worried about their job.
3) they are worried that their gov’ts are printing too much fiat currency to give to the banks for "stimulus" and this will create future severe inflation.
4) they are in too much debt already and can't afford another huge monthly payment.
5) They are worried about social instability and unrest.
It takes sound currency and a free market to absorb products in mass and they can make all the "green" cars they want, but there will be no market to sell them to until these problems are solved. You can't get out of debt and free up the market by printing more paper money and creating more public debt!
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paulwesterberg 12:41PM (4/03/2009)
Even if you had the money to buy a car(today!) what are your options:
- Spend a lot of money for a new car that gets marginally better gas mileage and will be totally worthless and obsolete in 2 years when electric cars arrive on the market.
- Spend 25k on a 2009 prius which gets significantly better mileage(dumb because the 2010 prius is due at dealers next month).
- Spend 23k on an 2010 insight(dumb because the 2010 prius is due at dealers next month).
Note: Gas prices are low so payback on a hybrid drivetrain takes longer.
The current new cars people can afford to buy right now are probably not much more efficient than what they are currently driving. With low gas prices and tight finances people would rather fix up their old car rather than start making monthly car payments on a brand new piece of shit.
Tim 12:54PM (4/03/2009)
Paulwesterburg,
Yep, just more REAL reasons why people aren't buying. It will be interesting to see where the economy and credit markets are when the "green" alternatives like EVs & E-REVs hit the market. Time will tell, but I have a bad feeling about Printing $Trillions of new public debt to borrow your way into prosperity. Real capital comes from production and savings, not consuming and debt.
Tim 12:22PM (4/03/2009)
Yes, we are turning around a corner. But what is hiding there is most troublesome.
http://educate-yourself.org/nwo/
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