Volkswagen  on Thursday said it will offer trade-in incentives and a bonus for scrapping older diesel vehicles in Germany, in a move to stave off driving bans in polluted cities.

VW will offer an incentive for customers who agree to scrap diesel vehicles equipped with older euro 1 to euro 4 engines, the carmaker said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her coalition partners agreed earlier this month on plans to cut pollution from diesel vehicles by asking carmakers to offer owners trade-in incentives and hardware fixes.