BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - German Transport Minister Volker Wissing has suggested that car manufacturers could pay customers for a 49-euro ticket when selling vehicles, at least for a certain period of time. "I would like to see that, even if a car is sold in Germany, we also have the Germany ticket at least included as a matter of course," the FDP politician said on Tuesday.

He added that car manufacturers could include the ticket "for a certain period of time" with the purchase contract. Such an approach could invite to be on the road with different modes of transport.

The ticket will be launched on May 1, but can already be purchased from numerous transport companies. It is valid nationwide for a price of 49 euros a month on local and regional transport and is intended as a subscription. It can be canceled on a monthly basis.

So far, more than three million of these tickets have been sold, according to Ingo Wortmann, president of the Association of German Transport Companies. "This is becoming, you can almost say hourly, more." He added that 750,000 tickets had been sold to people who previously did not have a subscription to local public transport.

At the start of sales, the VDV had predicted that around 5.6 million new subscription customers would join the Deutschlandticket and around 11 million people who already have a local transport subscription would switch to the 49-euro ticket. On Tuesday, Wortmann stressed that the number of ticket holders would increase slowly but steadily./nif/DP/mis