New European car sales fell for the first time in 10 months in April as scrapping schemes that had been bolstering sales began to fade, and the economic situation remained difficult, industry association ACEA said.

Governments in many major European car markets launched scrapping incentive schemes to help crisis-hit carmakers in the early part of last year, giving a boost to sales, but schemes have either finished or are being phased out.

The European car market fell 7.4 percent in April, with 1,134,701 new cars registered in European member states last month.

“In the first months of the present year … government support has ended or begun to fade out and the economic situation remains difficult,” ACEA said in a statement.

Germany, whose scheme ended in September, posted the largest year-on-year decline in registrations, with a 31.7 percent drop.

France, whose scrapping scheme is still in place, albeit at a reduced level, saw a 1.9 percent increase in registrations.

In the first four months of the year, European registrations were up 4.8 percent year-on-year, but down 11.6 percent compared with the first four months of 2008, before the crisis hit.

ACEA’s data showed that Japan’s Nissan Motor Co Ltd saw a 38.3 percent gain in registrations in April compared with the same month last year. Other gainers were Kia, whose registrations rose 8.9 percent, BMW up 13.1 percent and Renault , up 8.7 percent.

Volkswagen group, Europe’s biggest carmaker, saw its registrations slide 7.7 percent year-on-year in April, while Fiat group sales were down 27.3 percent, GM group sales fell 19.1 percent and Toyota was down 20.7 percent last month.