Social leasing comes first. In fact, a first customer was able to benefit from this government plan that allows him to rent an electric car at a reduced price.
“The keys were handed over yesterday,” declared the Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu, on TF1 this Friday, January 19.
A vehicle from the Stellantis group, which does not specify the brand in question among those offering eligible vehicles: Citroën, Fiat, Jeep, Opel and Peugeot.
A device with quite strict conditions
So far, only 25,000 state-subsidized vehicles are available this year under this open “bonus” under fairly strict conditions. Social leasing is proposed for the most modest French activities (revenu fiscal de référence annuel par part inférieure à 15,400 euros), parcourant plus 8,000 kilomètres par an dans le cadre de leur activité professionnelle et résidant à plus 15 kilomètres de leur Workplace.
Specifically, this allows you to have an electric city car on lease for at least 3 years, renewable (with or without a purchase option) for less than 100 euros per month (Renault Twingo, Fiat 500e, Opel Corsa, Peugeot e-208) . Or an electric “family” for less than 150 euros per month (Citroën ë-C4, Fiat 600e, Jeep Avenger, Opel Mokka, Peugeot e-2008, Renault Mégane, Zoé and Kangoo E-Tech, Hyundai Kona…). A price without an initial contribution, but that does not include options, insurance or maintenance costs, not to mention the installation of a charging station.
As with the ecological bonus since December 15, only vehicles manufactured in Europe are eligible for this aid.
What real demand must be satisfied?
After “about 90,000 people” have submitted a request on the pre-booking platform, the measure is a “success”, celebrated Christophe Béchu this Friday morning.
The ministry, for its part, told AFP that “91,000 people” had expressed interest in the information site “my electric lease” put online by the government during the three weeks in which it was possible to register. Please note, however, that this is a simple email registration, without knowing whether interested parties are actually eligible for this system.
The site is no longer accepting registrations since January 4, people who want to benefit from the electric car at 100 euros per month must contact the rental companies directly, the list of which is available on the official website.
Stellantis states in a statement that “around one hundred thousand potential customers have come into contact with the group’s brands.” The group confirms in passing that it has obtained “20,000 validated financing requests, that is, more than 80% of the volumes planned to date” in the system. Renault would have received the rest of the files, that is, 5,000 applications.
Hyundai, the only foreign brand eligible with its Kona assembled in Europe, was currently waiting to give its figures after a weekend of open houses and numerous applications. Even if, on paper, a file validated by the government no longer existed.
A budget that would reach 520 million euros
To satisfy the greatest possible number of requests, the Government is “working” with car manufacturers “to see if we can manufacture 30, 35, 40,000 vehicles” instead of 25,000, assured Christophe Béchu on TF1.
However, increasing the quota of accepted applications this year raises several questions. These new open files would already be limited a priori to the strict criteria of the system, while the Government wanted to extend them to all low-income households, including in particular the “inactive” ones, such as retirees and the unemployed.
How can we also assign files to different manufacturers based on delivery times? A Citroën ë-C3, where the livraisons have been released starting in April, is certain to be eligible, but all of them have a valid dossier alors that the other models are immediately available, or at the moment in a moment shorter?
For the Minister of Ecological Transition, the ball is now in the builders’ court:
“We must understand that we in the government finance this system, we ensure the connection, but then the person who makes his request connects directly with the manufacturer whose model he has chosen. Now, it is the delivery time, “It is the builder.” builder and Frenchman by Frenchman, things will be done”.
A statement that, however, does not allow us to understand how the requests received were actually validated: in short, why was Stellantis able to obtain 20,000 out of 25,000?
Finally, and while we are still waiting for the decree that sets the amount of the 2024 ecological bonus, the question of the budget allocated to this aid also arises.
The State had indicated that it would finance each rental with 13,000 euros. A maximum amount a priori, since the cost of leasing three Twingos, for example, does not reach that amount.
In any case, if we maintain this figure, the 25,000 files would represent a budget of 325 million euros. Budget that would increase to 520 million euros for 40,000 files validated as the Government wishes.
Source: BFM TV
