Scrappage will provide a boost to Nissan's assembly plant in Sunderland, which is expecting additional short-term demand for Micra, Note and Qashqai.

In April the carmaker experienced a year-on-year increase in sales in European markets already operating a scrappage scheme.

It has also begun marketing a trade-in incentive for customers with cars aged over 8 years who want to buy a new Sunderland-built model.

From June, the plant wil recruit 150 extra manufacturing staff on four-month contracts to support a planned assembly volume increase of around 14,000 units.

Trevor Mann, Nissan Senior Vice President for Manufacturing, Europe commented: “The impact of the financial crisis is continuing and our 2009 full-year forecasts still reflect a depressed market overall.

“However, this short term spike in demand, fuelled by a number of scrappage schemes introduced across Europe, is clearly a very welcome boost to business during what is a highly challenging period for all car makers.”

Nissan's registrations in April rose 9% in Germany, 31% in France and 21% in Italy, where scrappage programmes are in effect, but fell 4.6% in the UK, where the scrappage scheme does not start until May 18.