Itar-Tass reported that dealers of Russia major carmaker AVTOVAZ have already received more than 165,000 bids for the purchase of new cars in the format of the car scrapping program.

Under the program, which started operating on March 8th 2010, owners of cars produced before 2000 can receive bonuses worth RUB 50,000 to buy new Russian made cars in exchange for recycling their old cars.

The press centre said “AVTOVAZ has issued 74,700 certificates on recycling and received 165,300 bids for the purchase of new cars since the launching of the program. In April 2010, the company’s dealers received more than 75,000 bids and issued 50,200 certificates.”

The press centre said approximately one third of ATVOVAZ produced cars were sold in the format of the company car scrapping program, adding that in April 2010, AVTOVAZ sold 52,400 LADA cars in Russia, including 18,000 vehicles in the format of the aforesaid program.

During a meeting with reporters on April 27th, Mr Igor Komarov president of AVTOVAZ said that more than a half of the company’s car sales in May would be accounted for the vehicles selling in the format of the scrapping program.

Mr Maxim Nagaitsev Vice President for Marketing and Sales of AVTOVAZ said the company planned to sell additionally 100,000 cars within the framework of this program in 2010.

(Sourced from Itar-Tass)