ROME – Poor availability, autonomy and charging infrastructure no longer seem to be a brake on the spread of electric cars. At least in France, where President Emmanuel Macron, after promising an electric car for 100 euros a month during his second election campaign, actually launched the initiative at the end of last December which, less than a month later, has already sold out. This is a particular social leasing where less wealthy citizens, paying just 100 euros a month (and in some cases even less), can get hold of a new electric car. In fact, the citizen is responsible for the monthly installment while the State takes care of paying the initial maxi installment to start the social leasing.
This is an important contribution which reaches 13,000 euros and which before the norm had enticed especially the Chinese producers who were preparing to fill up. Then, in a conversation with Carlos Tavares, CEO of Stellantis, Macron accepted the suggestion to link the incentives not only to zero emissions but also to the place of production of the cars. At the end of December, out of a forecast of 20-25,000 cars that would be used for the operation this year, Stellantis with nine models, Renault with two and then Hyundai agreed to reserve cars that met the requirements for the initiative. with the Kona produced in the Czech Republic and Nissan with the Leaf.
In less than a month the success was stratospheric and the available park that was supposed to accommodate requests for the whole year was almost completely sold out. In particular, Stellantis has already closed 20,000 contracts, as announced by Christophe Béchu, French Minister for the Ecological Transition, during a visit to a dealer last week. However, the government, thanks to this success, has not chosen to stop but to double or rather, to continue with the incentives as long as there are funds. Not the ones he had estimated for the initiative in December, i.e. 260-325 million euros, practically already exhausted. But drawing from the total allocation of 1.5 billion provided by the 2024 finance law, to modernize the car fleet.
And the initiative is increasingly tempting, with Renault adding the Zoe and the Kangoo to the two initial models made available, the electric Twingo and the Megane E-Tech. Stellantis which has already indicated its willingness to add the new Fiat Panda as soon as it arrives mid-year. And with Volkswagen having just declared itself interested in participating in the operation.
In short, an unstoppable success which, at least at the moment, does not stop in front of autonomy that is not always satisfactory or a lack of charging stations.