High-income EV buyers will get less subsidy in France

France on Tuesday announced a subsidy reduction for high-income electric vehicle (EV) buyers in the country to reduce the risk of overspending on the subsidy program.

The French government will cut a 20 percent subsidy for high-income EV buyers. The new changes will reduce the subsidy from 5,000 euros ($5,386) to 4,000 ($4,286) for the 50% highest-income car buyers.

On the other hand, France will continue to fund 7,000 euros ($7,500) to low-income buyers.

A few days ago, the government paused the EV lease subsidy program that allowed to lease a vehicle at up to 100 to 150 euros a month. The program was opened in January and received a massive response, exceeding the initial lease subsidies for 20,000 people.

Reacting to this, French Environmental Transition Minister Christophe Bechu said that the country is still modifying the subsidy program to help people buy more EVs but with reduced subsidies.

Governments around the globe offering subsidies to support the purchase of electric vehicles to reduce carbon emissions and support clean energy transportation. As a result, more people will have to upgrade from their combustion fuel vehicles to electrified vehicles to get these subsidies.

France is also one of the early adopters of the subsidy program and allocated a 1.5 billion euro budget to offer subsidies for EV buyers. Some cities French cities such as Paris offer additional subsidies to further boost EV purchases.

(source – Reuters)