Stellantis indicated on Thursday that it had won 70% of the
“social leasing”
contracts set up by the government to facilitate access to electric mobility, or around 35,000 orders, while Renault represented 10,000 orders out of the 50,000 in total.
The State decided on Tuesday to put an end to the 2024 edition of this system allowing the less well-off to access an electric car for 100 euros per month, after having
“exceeded”
its initial objectives in six weeks, according to the Élysée .
But the operation will be relaunched at the end of 2024 for the year 2025, underlined the Élysée.
“Social leasing was an excellent initiative to protect the freedom of movement of the most constrained households”
, explained the boss of Stellantis, Carlos Tavares, referring to a
“market share greater than 70%”
, according to
“our estimates”
.
Renault has received
“a little more than 10,000”
orders, its boss Luca de Meo said on Boursorama.
“
Social leasing”
, launched in December 2023 by President Emmanuel Macron, offered rental with purchase option (LOA) at less than 100 euros per month for electric city cars, and 150 euros for family cars (excluding insurance and maintenance ), without initial contribution, and for three years, renewable once.
Read alsoBercy overwhelmed by the astonishing success of social leasing
There is a “need for these subsidies”
This measure was aimed at modest French people who drive a lot and buy few new cars for budget reasons and should therefore have waited for more electric vehicles to arrive on the second-hand market to equip themselves.
The offer, which lowered the price of a new electric car to that of a two-wheeler, was immediately a victim of its success.
There is
“a need for these subsidies”
because
“there does not yet have a natural market”
for electric cars, argued Luca de Meo.
“It will take a somewhat medium-term strategy to still have support
,” he detailed on
BFM Business
, calling for
“above all to avoid”
too sudden a fall in the market, evoking the German situation.
In Germany, after the sudden elimination of the environmental bonus for individuals in December, sales of new electric cars represented only 10% of the market in January, compared to 18.4% for the year 2023. In the absence of public subsidies, Constantin Gall, of the EY firm in Germany, said in early February that he expected a drop in new electric registrations in the months to come due to prices that were still too high.