France Cuts EV Incentives for Wealthy Households

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/France-Cuts-EV-Incentives-for-Wealthy-Households.html

by PaulHoule • 2 years ago

20 13 2 years ago

sokoloff• 2 years ago

This is a cut of 1000 Euros versus previous. This will result in a very few high-income (headline notwithstanding, this is predicated on income, not wealth) households buying an ICE or hybrid instead of an EV.

Obviously incentives matter, but this doesn't seem particularly severe policy change.

We're in the market for a new-to-us car (in the US). The used EV tax credit is not available to us, so we're going to end up buying a car with a gas engine (likely a hybrid) to join our existing BEV [bought because of the 2014 tax credit]. I can't really complain, as the used EV credit is relatively new and if government policy says we do or don't get a credit, we incorporate that into our decision process. (If the overall population didn't do this, incentive policies like this would have no effect, so it's good that they do in order to nudge marginal decisions one way or the other.)

newshackr• 2 years ago

I don't understand these policies. I am in a relatively wealthy % of the US, but when I recently bought a car I didn't buy an electric car specifically because I didn't qualify for the subsidy and the cost was more without the subsidy.

These means tested measures seem like they sometimes don't stay targeted on the goal.

qball• 2 years ago

I don't understand these policies

Easy- it's because electric cars as a class of product aren't there yet (every company with significant EV production capacity is busy producing late-alpha-quality products except for Teslas that are early-beta). Therefore, consumers need an incentive to buy and manufacturers need an incentive to create cars that are worse in most ways in the hopes that they'll be able to fund the development of technology that would actually make EVs viable for the average consumer.

As far as the politics go, the wing of the government that believes electric cars are the future spent all its money on a public health measure (the success and necessity of that is out of scope), and relevantly for France industrial inputs got more expensive because the US finally got the war on the European border they'd been trying to ignite for the past 10 years.

Environmental policies are ultimately luxuries; and in a new era of austerity after 3 years of unrestrained spending it's not a surprise that subsidies are disappearing.

mikhael28• 2 years ago

Smart, discourage the people who could afford to buy one from buying them.

lifestyleguru2• 2 years ago

I would worry more about people who cannot afford first place to live, for them new compact car is out of question.

486sx33• 2 years ago

Get rid of all EV subsidies. Redirect the funding to charging infrastructure that is priced properly. Charging should have a cost and the chargers should be made in the USA with the Tesla standard plug. Chargers should have a state tax per kw equal to equivalent gas tax for an ICE vehicle to support the road network, adjusted for weight. This network can be financed and bonds on the profits yield sold.

Subsidies support Chinese battery manufacturers. EVs can easily float on their own, no engine to make, only batteries to build!

InCityDreams• 2 years ago

Charging should have a cost and the chargers should be made in the USA with the Tesla standard plug.

Why so the USA?

pylua• 2 years ago

Let’s just tax the gas stations extremely high to encourage ev growth.

lifestyleguru2• 2 years ago

Why EU countries are subsidizing >40k EUR cars to well off people is beyond me. Electric shmelectric, it's a premium product.

thedrbrian• 2 years ago

Shouldn’t affect EV sales. People will buy them because of the cost savings……… right?

lm28469• 2 years ago

Given that the entire scheme is a scam where the manufacturer pockets the difference I think we could get rid of it for everyone

baggy_trough• 2 years ago

These subsidy cliffs are kind of crazy if you want richer people to buy EVs. Better to only offer the subsidy on cheaper EVs.

throwaway22032• 2 years ago

I don't know anyone who has bought an EV based on marginal differences in headline cost like this.

It either works for your use case or it doesn't.

In the UK since approx the Ukraine war it's been significantly more expensive to run an EV (per mile) unless you have a home charger.

But realistically everyone I know who buys new cars buys what they want and a few grand doesn't really influence it.

France Cuts EV Incentives for Wealthy Households

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