• Offering the most modest households the rental of an electric vehicle at 100 euros per month was Emmanuel Macron's campaign promise and it could see the light of day in the autumn.
  • But the contours of the system remain unclear and the obstacles numerous, starting with that of not having too few electric cars produced in France at low cost to be the subject of social leasing.
  • However, the NGO Transport & Environment and the think-tank Iddri invite us not to renounce this promise but on the contrary to make it a flagship measure to decarbonize transport in France. Their study, published on Friday, explains how.

An electric car for 100 euros per month... This was one of Emmanuel Macron's key promises during the last presidential elections. The candidate president announced 100,000 vehicles each year offered in social leasing (long-term rental with option to buy) for the most modest households and certain professions.

The measure is still in the cards. On 26th April last Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne included it in her government's roadmap for the next 100 days. And reiterated the schedule: from this autumn, eligible people will be able to reserve their vehicle and the first deliveries will take place in early 2024.


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An inadequate supply of electric vehicles?

But to date, the contours of the device remain unclear. Who exactly will be able to claim it? How many years will the rental run? Will there be an entry rent, often prohibitive in the classic leasing offers offered by car manufacturers? How will the measure be financed?

Above all, which vehicles will be offered for social leasing? This is the main unknown to date while electric vehicles currently on the market are at a price hardly compatible with a rental at 100 euros per month. With a few exceptions such as the Dacia Spring, sold around 20,000 euros. But it is produced in China, "when the government wants to condition social leasing to cars made in France or at least Europe," says Marie Chéron, the head of vehicle policies at the French branch of Transport & Environment (T&E), a European federation of NGOs specializing in mobility issues. "Rightly so if we want to avoid subsidizing foreign competition," she says. The problem is that our automotive industry has chosen to move towards high-end electric vehicles. In March 2020, by unveiling his post-Covid recovery plan of 8 billion euros for the automotive sector, Emmanuel Macron himself invited him to go in this direction.

"An urgent need to democratize electricity"

However, despite the obstacles, T&E invites the government not to bury this campaign promise, nor to review its ambition. On the contrary, in a study published this Friday, in collaboration with the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations, a think-tank specializing in the environment, the NGO proposes a battle plan that would make social leasing a structuring measure of mobility policies in France. By giving itself the means, "about 900,000 low-income households* and those with no alternatives to the car could benefit from social leasing between 2024 and 2030," the study says.

The roadmap is therefore more ambitious than that imagined by Emmanuel Macron, since it would require adding 130,000 vehicles in the device per year, on average. Same thing for monthly payments, T&E and Iddri imagining, in the device, the possibility of renting small cars from 75 euros per month**. "Mobility insecurity is increasing in France on the basis of expensive fuels, which are expected to remain so for a long time to come," says Marie Chéron. It is becoming urgent to democratize the electric car, which only the wealthiest have really had access to date. »

But the issue is not only social, it is also ecological while transport is the first sector emitting greenhouse gases in France and the only one whose emissions are higher than 1990. Going electric is only part of the solution. There is also a need to shift production towards smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, the NGOs repeat. "But the French car industry is not going too far in this direction, even though it is heavily subsidized," says Marie Chéron.

Two obstacles to be lifted to reassure eligible French people

The whole promise of social leasing is to rectify the situation. Or at least to create an additional, secure market that French manufacturers would have every interest in investing. The study recommends that the State enter into a contract with them, setting high environmental requirements for the cars that will integrate the system. The lightest possible, with the best energy efficiency of batteries, low in electronic and digital equipment, integrating recycled materials and allowing maximum recycling at the end of life, lists the study. "These environmental criteria are all the more necessary as they will help reduce the cost of these vehicles and therefore arrive at the lowest possible rents," adds Marie Chéron.

But the lowest possible monthly payments are not enough to guarantee that the leasing wanted by Emmanuel Macron is really "social". In other words: that eligible French people seize the device and reserve their vehicles. Marie Chéron identifies at least two other obstacles to lift to reassure them. "The first is to offer short rental leases, for a minimum period of two years renewable, and with the possibility of breaking the contract under certain conditions: moving, divorce, etc., she begins. The second is to include in the monthly payment a maintenance-repair package. Many low-income households today give up leasing offers for fear of being confronted with additional costs that they could not cope with. »

Switch the aid from the ecological bonus to social leasing?

The problem is that these two conditions tend to increase the cost of social leasing for public finances. In their study, T&E and IDDRI are aware of this financial equation. At cruising speed, the scheme would represent around €800 million per year in direct state aid. "In its 2023 budget, the State allocates 1.3 billion euros for aid for the acquisition of clean vehicles," compares Marie Chéron. The famous ecological bonus that can be enjoyed without any real conditions of resources. "As much as the measure may have been useful to get the electric vehicle off the ground in France, its relevance is questionable today," she continues. The device has mainly benefited the wealthiest drivers. Including for the purchase of Tesla which lowered the price of some of its models to be eligible. »

This is the controversy of recent days. It pushed Emmanuel Macron to announce, this Thursday, an upcoming reform of the ecological bonus, in order to "take into account the carbon footprint" of the production of vehicles and thus promote those manufactured in Europe. T&E and IDDRI want to go further by gradually reducing the amount of this ecological bonus for all in favor of an increase in social leasing targeted at the populations that need the most.

*The study recommends reserving the device as a priority to those whose reference tax income is less than 13,500 euros, or 40% of the poorest French people.

**In detail, T&E and IDDRI imagine several sizes of cars to be included in the social leasing system, from microcars to family cars. And for rents ranging from 75 euros to 200 euros per month. These leases would be for a minimum period of two years, renewable.

  • Environment
  • Planet
  • Car
  • Electric car
  • Transport
  • Emmanuel Macron
  • Energy transition