2023-05-12 16:39:40
Make a success of the ecological transition without penalizing the most modest households or aggravating social tensions. This was the meaning of the proposal formulated by Emmanuel Macron in the in-between rounds of the presidential campaign: to offer the most modest households the option of long-term rental of an electric vehicle for €100 per month.
Is this measure really realistic, when we know that the price of these cars starts at €20,000 for a Dacia Spring produced in China and is well above €30,000 for most other models? Many players in the sector doubt it. But the government, after many procrastination, ensures to launch this device next fall.
Up to 900,000 beneficiaries
And a study of around forty pages published on Friday May 12 proves him right. Produced by the very serious NGO Transport & Environment (T&E), in partnership with the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), it is rolling out a detailed action plan to “ambitious social leasing, with 100% electric vehicles”which could benefit, between 2024 and 2030, 900,000 households.
Target ? People, in particular, who depend on the private car to access essential services and their professional activity, as well as precarious people (with tax income of less than €13,500 per year). Eventually, 15% of the park could come under this system.
From €75 per month
However, this assumes that “the State is committed and takes the automotive sector with it”and signs a contract with the manufacturers directing the industry towards the production of small affordable vehicles in France and Europe, contrary to the strategy pursued so far.
The authors of the study are convinced that, under this condition, « the cost price of cars can be lowered by 20 to 30% compared to that of the current market”. What to make possible “leasing formulas from €100 per month for a model equivalent to the electric Twingo or €150 for the equivalent of a Peugeot e-208”. The rent could even start at €75 for the smaller models. The contract should include maintenance and repairs, to protect users against unforeseen expenses.
Funded by state and local authorities
Concretely, it is an organization bringing together the State, private funders (banks, leasing companies) and local authorities who would acquire vehicles, to then rent them. After ten years, the cars could be sold to their users or offered on the second-hand market.
Local authorities could contribute up to €1,000 or €2,000 per vehicle, in particular to enable low-income households to continue to travel within low-emission zones (ZFE).
But, according to the calculations of T & E and IDDRI, the State should be in the first line to make the operation financially viable, by transferring to the new social leasing the money currently used for the ecological bonus in favor of cars electric – without means test: currently, it is awarded for models costing up to €47,000…
Redesign for the ecological bonus
Chance of the calendar, Emmanuel Macron announced, Thursday, May 10, an upcoming overhaul of the ecological bonus in order to “taking into account the carbon footprint” vehicle production. This decision is not exactly in the direction of social leasing because it aims above all to block the way to Chinese manufacturers, whose cars are made with electricity produced at 70% with coal.
It should lead to limiting its effect: if the “€100 car” was slow to start, it was in particular because the government feared a massive influx of cheap Chinese cars, such as the Seagull, a €10,000 model presented by BYD at the recent Shanghai Motor Show.
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