Emmanuel Macron announced a reform aimed at “taking into account the carbon footprint” of vehicle production and thus favoring models made in Europe.
It is a turn that the President of the Republic wants to take. During his speech on reindustrialization, Thursday, May 11Emmanuel Macron indicated that the ecological bonus applied for the purchase of an electric vehicle would now be conditional on the “carbon footprint” to support what is produced in Europe.
“We must agree to target our aid and our purchasing policies on what is good for the climate and for Europe,” said the head of state.
“We must not replicate the mistakes we made, for example on photovoltaics,” he insisted. Currently, according to the government, 40% of these bonuses relate to vehicles manufactured in Asia.
Priority to vehicles produced in Europe
During the Council of Ministers on Wednesday, some clarifications were made. It is therefore a question of supporting vehicles manufactured in Europe and in France, because “public support for electric vehicles, in its current form, supports to a large extent vehicles manufactured in conditions that are not very respectful of the environment”, says the press kit on the Green Industry Bill.
“Chinese vehicles, for example, have a manufacturing carbon footprint around 45% higher than that of similar models produced in Europe” can we also read.
“The proposed measure therefore aims to exclude from the automobile bonus vehicles whose production has a low environmental performance, and this before the end of 2023”, announces the government. The bonus “will be reserved for vehicles produced in Europe”, summed up Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, after the Council of Ministers.
Exceptions for certain vehicles produced outside Europe
In reality, there will be no geographical criteria as this would be contrary to the rules of the WTO (the World Trade Organization). Certain models produced outside the European Union will therefore still be eligible for the bonus. But they will now have to meet three criteria:
- The assembly of the parts is done in a country that has an energy mix including green and renewable energies
- The batteries and aluminum that make up this vehicle must be manufactured in a country with a carbon-free energy mix
- Batteries and materials used must be recyclable
In view of these criteria, in fact, many producing countries will be excluded, in particular China where the main source of energy is coal.
An environmental score for each vehicle
Bercy says it has developed a model to assess the carbon footprint of building a vehicle, “from the battery to the construction of the engine”. According to the details of the ministry, this calculation will make it possible to assign an environmental score, established by Ademe, to each vehicle. If a car’s score is not good enough, it will automatically be excluded from the bonus.
A decree should be published this summer and the measure will come into force from September. “Such a measure would reduce France’s carbon footprint by -800,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year on average between 2024 and 2027,” says Bercy.
In addition to automobiles, “the support provided to so-called intermediate vehicles (small electric quadricycles for example) will be increased within the framework of the bonus thus modified”, adds the executive.
The ecological bonus is a financial aid granted to any purchaser or tenant (LOA for more than two years) of an electric or hydrogen vehicle or a combination of the two. The purchase cost must be less than 47,000 euros. Last year, this bonus represented 1.2 billion euros.
