The subject is particularly sensitive in urban areas where the most polluting thermal cars are being banned... The government will launch "in the autumn" the offer of rental of electric cars "at affordable prices" to modest households promised by the President of the Republic, said Wednesday Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.

The head of government, who presented Wednesday her roadmap for the "hundred days" announced by the head of state in the wake of the promulgation of the unpopular pension reform, returned to this device supposed to reconcile the fight against global warming and maintained access to individual mobility. "Regarding the car, we will launch in the autumn an offer to rent clean vehicles at affordable prices, assured Elisabeth Borne, without further details. It was a commitment of the President of the Republic. It will be held. »



In October 2022, just before the opening of the Paris Motor Show, President Emmanuel Macron announced a series of measures supposed to help the French switch to electric cars, beyond the most privileged layers of the population to whom these vehicles are currently reserved, given their still high price and their rarity on the second-hand market.

At 100 euros per month?

The most emblematic part of these incentives, evoked since March 2022 by Emmanuel Macron who was then campaigning for his re-election, consisted of an offer to rent electric cars at 100 euros per month, subject to means testing to target the most modest households. At the time, the president-candidate's team explained that the plan would target at least 100,000 electric vehicles leased per year.

But the Climate Action Network had noted last January that this device would be "impossible to set up without subsidizing foreign cars because French manufacturers do not make small affordable cars" electric.

One of the cheapest "zero emission" cars on the market, the Dacia Spring offered by the Renault group at 120 euros per month and without contribution subject to scrapping an old car, also comes out of a Chinese factory. And this Wednesday, the Prime Minister did not recall the amount of rent originally mentioned: the famous 100 euros monthly.

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