In 2024, 45,000 people will have benefited from this system which allows owners of an old petrol or diesel vehicle to replace it with an electric model. The executive wants to favor the ecological bonus and social leasing.
The conversion bonus, aka scrappage bonus, is falling into oblivion. The plan to remove the device, announced by The Echoes mid-October, was confirmed by Bercy to BFM Business and Figaro this Thursday. The Prime Minister had already expressed his intention to simplify aid intended to green the automobile fleet in France. “The government confirms that it is putting an end to the conversion bonus system, which is based on a condition of removing a polluting vehicle, to focus on the ecological bonus», indicates to the Figaro a spokesperson at Bercy. There are currently three: social leasing, desired by Emmanuel Macron and launched at the beginning of 2024, which allows low-income households to rent an electric vehicle for 100 euros per month; the ecological bonus, a bonus for the purchase of an electric vehicle whose amount (from 4,000 euros to 7,000 euros) varies according to income, and finally the conversion bonus subject to income conditions and paid when an owner of an old gasoline or diesel vehicle (Crit'Air 3 and above) scraps it and replaces it with an electric model (bonus of 5,000 euros) or recent gasoline (bonus of 3,000 euros).
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But budgetary decisions ultimately eliminated the measure which represented the smallest envelope: 150 million euros out of the billion and a half dedicated in 2024 to the purchase of vehicles that emit less CO2 and pollute less. It will benefit 45,000 people in 2024. Many defended it, appreciating that it removes old and polluting vehicles from the vehicle fleet while the average age of vehicles in circulation is getting older and older. The second-hand market, almost four times larger than that of new vehicles, confirms this trend.
In 2025, only social leasing and the ecological bonus will be renewed and within the narrower limit of the billion euros set by the government. This billion has already been eaten away by the excess of the envelope for the 2024 financial year. The president of the PFA Luc Chatel warned the government in a letter addressed to Michel Barnier: « The very sharp reduction in the envelope dedicated to the bonus which would be divided by more than half, going from 1.5 billion to 700 million euros, would inevitably result in a fall in sales.
But the government is counting on “the use of energy saving certificates, a mechanism encouraging energy suppliers to finance energy sobriety actions, in order to continue to support households, particularly low-income households, in the rental of clean vehicles», specifies Figaro a spokesperson at Bercy. This would make it possible to reach the amount of one billion euros promised to support demand for electric vehicles. The 2025 edition of the ecological bonus should reduce the amount of the bonus. That of social leasing should also be reduced. In 2024, it could rise to 13,000 euros. The amount of the monthly rent for long-term rental will exceed 100 euros. Social leasing could also apply to used electric vehicles. In 2024, 50,000 electric vehicles will have been purchased for long-term rental thanks to this measure. The government closed the window in early March just two months after its launch.
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