Effervescence in the sales offices of automobile manufacturers. The government has just revealed the terms of application of the 2024 bonus, i.e. the criteria that must be absolutely respected to benefit from this discount on the purchase of an electric car. Currently 5,000 euros (7,000 for low-income households) allocated to any electric vehicle less than or equal to 47,000 euros in price, the bonus will become much more selective. And this will hurt because, by no longer only considering the vehicle’s “while driving” emissions but its cumulative emissions over the entire life cycle, many cars, including French ones, will be impacted.
And not just Renault’s Dacia Spring because it’s made in China or Stellantis’ Jeep Avenger, which is made in Poland (with Fiats) in a factory powered by coal-fired power plants. Indeed, each electric model using a battery of Chinese origin may or may not fall under the rule depending on the verified method of manufacturing. In theory, manufacturers should make a declaration which could be checked by inspectors provided that they can access the production sites. The investigation into the leak of a Covid virus from a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan already allows for circumspection, at least for this country, on the reliability of the result.
The manufacturers themselves will be able to challenge the ineligibility of their models by providing proof of an eco-score which would be better than the official measurement. To evaluate it, the design offices will look at today’s edition of the Official Journal, Tuesday September 19, which contains the decree and the order which govern the environmental criteria adopted.
Thus, it is a question of evaluating what was not until now, everything that precedes “putting on the road”, that is to say the assembly, the construction, the energy used by the factory, but also upstream the resources used which we do not know if they will go as far as the extraction of rare earths in the mines or if they will stop at the supply of ferrous metals, aluminum , rubber, glass and, for batteries, their weight and transport, obviously penalizing from China.
However, this is not enough and dissecting the contents of the battery, a criterion which appears essential but, in the spirit of simplification, this aspect would be, at least initially, avoided. Secondly, the government hopes that “made in Europe” batteries, if possible without cobalt, will have taken over.
At this stage, the list of vehicles dubbed for the bonus will not be revealed until mid-December, to wait for Ademe (the Ecological Transition Agency) to deliver its recommendations. Announced on May 11 by Emmanuel Macron, the study will have been completed in such a short timeframe compared to the usual speed of the administration and the extreme complexity of the method that the protest is already on the horizon.
The scale has 80 points and you will need to meet 60 to benefit from a bonus, which cost the State 1 billion euros this year. Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy, is pleased to “favor vehicles whose production emits the least CO2, which should result in a reduction in the French carbon footprint of 800,000 tonnes per year […] . It’s a common sense measure, emblematic of our green industry strategy, he said. This will be a first in Europe. »
On the other hand, we can indeed trust the manufacturers to analyze the official classification in detail and defend the failed vehicles.
There still remains a contentious point, which is that by examining the entire process, from the collection of raw materials to final recycling, the electric car appears much less virtuous. And thermal much more than what is criticized by its detractors. Ademe would be well advised to extend its study, this time much easier, to petrol and diesel vehicles so that, with verified elements in hand, we can judge their real impact on the environment. It’s just a question of fairness because the automobile eco-score should, as in household appliances, evaluate all models more precisely than the obsolete Crit’Air, which only takes into account CO2 emissions.