Aid for replacing your thermal vehicle with an electric car is dwindling. The ecological bonus could be reduced in 2025, and the conversion bonus will also disappear. Enough to make the purchase of an electric car more expensive.
Buying an electric car is becoming less and less advantageous in terms of purchasing assistance, whether in France or elsewhere. The last reduction in the ecological bonus in France dates back to February 2024. In the United States, the new Trump administration also plans to eliminate the $7,500 aid intended to encourage the purchase of electric vehicles.
In France, another piece of bad news has just fallen: the disappearance of the conversion bonus, also known as the scrappage bonus. We'll explain it to you.
The conversion bonus: what is it exactly?
If you don't know about the conversion bonus, it may be because you know it under the term scrappage bonus. This is financial assistance for the purchase of a low-polluting car, with the reward of handing over your thermal, diesel or gasoline car for destruction in the scrapyard.
The dealer must take back your old car, cross out the registration document and indicate that it is intended for destruction. The scrappage bonus is awarded to owners with modest incomes, owning a Crit'Air 3 car or more. The aid is 5,000 euros for the purchase of an electric car and 3,000 euros for a new thermal car. This is a good operation if you want to replace an old car, which is not very popular on the second-hand market.
The government cuts spending
While the ecological bonus is threatened with a reduction bringing it to 3,000 euros in the new finance bill currently being debated in the Senate, the conversion bonus will end in 2025.
The information was confirmed at BFM Business and at Figaro by the Ministry of Finance. This decision is hardly surprising, knowing that the budgetary envelope devoted to the purchase of less polluting vehicles emitting less CO₂ will be reduced, from 1.5 billion to 1 billion euros in the 2025 PLFSS.
However, the conversion bonus had its defenders. It encouraged the renewal of the automobile fleet by accelerating the scrapping of polluting and aging cars.
However, it should be noted that some cars still roadworthy, but not very highly rated, have been handed over for destruction by their owners. These vehicles could have provided service to people with modest incomes or continued to meet the needs of their owners. Furthermore, launched in 2014, this bounty may have led to the destruction of vehicles of interest to collectors.
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