The subject is particularly sensitive in urban areas where the most polluting thermal cars are being banned… The government will launch “from the fall” the offer of electric car rental “at affordable prices” to low-income households promised by the President of the Republic, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Wednesday.
The head of government, who presented on 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 the global warming and maintained access to individual mobility. “Regarding the car, we will launch a clean vehicle rental offer at an affordable price in the fall, therefore assured Elisabeth Borne, without further details. It was a commitment from 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 intended to help the French to switch to electric cars, beyond the most privileged layers of the population. for which 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, mentioned since March 2022 by Emmanuel Macron who was then campaigning for his re-election, consisted of an electric car rental offer at 100 euros per month, subject to means testing to target the most vulnerable households. modest. At the time, the president-candidate’s team explained that the plan would target at least 100,000 electric vehicles on lease per year.
But the Climate Action Network had noted last January that this device would be “impossible to put in place without subsidizing foreign cars because French manufacturers do not make small affordable electric cars”.
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 the scrapping of an old car, also comes from a Chinese factory. And this Wednesday, the Prime Minister did not recall the amount of rent originally mentioned: the famous 100 euros monthly.