Soon millions of cars banned from driving in many French cities? That is what the implementation of the Low Emission Zones (ZFE) implies, whose deployment schedule was confirmed this week by the government, with the first verbalizations in particular planned for July 2024.
A test to identify the ideal engine
Faced with this especially short period, the Government is highlighting the different aids it offers to change cars, but what are they and who can benefit from them?
Information collected on the official site “Change of car”. Also with a test “Which vehicle replaces mine?”, suggesting a type of vehicle (electric, rechargeable or non-rechargeable hybrid, recent gasoline or diesel) with simulated costs and potential savings in use.
The ecological bonus
Launched in 2008, the ecological bonus has not stopped evolving since then. In 2022, it only applies to 100% electric cars (CO2 emissions at 0 g/km) and without rental conditions.
In this category of electric cars, it allows you to obtain up to 6,000 euros in aid for the purchase of a new vehicle with a maximum amount of 47,000 euros and with a limit of 27% of the purchase price. For a new Dacia Spring, currently sold from 19,800 euros, the bonus is therefore 5,346 euros.
For an electric vehicle whose purchase price is between 47,000 and 60,000 euros, the aid is reduced to 2,000 euros.
There is no aid for an electric vehicle whose purchase price exceeds 60,000 euros, with the exception of hydrogen vehicles (more expensive and whose offer is not yet very developed).
There is also a bonus of €1,000 for used electric vehicles and for new plug-in hybrid cars under €50,000 (CO2 emissions between 1 and 50 g/km and electric range of at least 50 km).
Finally, the last bonus, that of a retrofitted car (a thermal converted to electric), up to 5,000 euros subject to rental conditions and 2,500 euros for everyone.
In 2023, Emmanuel Macron recently mentioned his desire to increase the bonus to 7,000 euros “for half of the households, the most modest”.
The conversion bonus
This is the other great device on a national scale and the worthy successor of the scrap bond. The conversion bonus allows you to receive additional aid to the bonus, with an amount that can vary according to income level, the scrapped vehicle and the one that replaces it.
The aid can range from 1,500 euros for a new or used recent petrol vehicle (Crit’Air 1), up to 5,000 euros for an electric car, with an additional aid of 1,000 euros if you live or work in an EPZ (“Increase equivalent to the amount assigned by a local authority with a cap of 1000 euros”, according to the official scale).
local help
In addition to the bonus-conversion premium duo, it is possible to count on local help.
“Many local authorities (regions, departments, cities) offer various aids for the purchase of cleaner and more efficient vehicles, but also for the installation of charging infrastructure. Its amount as well as the allocation conditions vary according to the communities”, summarizes the site “Change of car”.
The site’s search engine allows you to have a first good overview of the help that your region can offer and whether it can be combined with other local help (this is not the case, for example, for the Ile-de-France help region).
However, this aid is turning out to be very heterogeneous and poorly calibrated, as highlighted by a recent study by the IDDRI (Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations) cited by Environment News.
13 million French people would thus be excluded from these local aid programs, in particular in the Brittany, Center Val de Loire, Nouvelle-Aquitaine regions and in the 5 overseas departments and regions: Mayotte, Réunion, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana.
A zero-rate loan for low-income households
Starting January 1, 2023, a zero-rate loan will be tested for two years to finance the acquisition of cleaner vehicles for the most modest households. Derived from the Climate and Resilience Law, this loan will be subject to specific conditions: it cannot, for example, exceed 30,000 euros. On the other hand, it will be cumulative with the rest of the aid.
Source: BFM TV
