The car incentives 2024 were sold out in a few hours after the opening of the platform dedicated to the Ecobonus on Monday 3 June. The trade associations Federauto And Unrae express doubts about the end of the funds intended for 100% electric cars which ended in just over 8 hours. The associations believe that the funds announced at the time for electric have not been fully made available.
Over 30 thousand registrations in just a few hours
Well 240 million euros incentives have been made available by the government for the purchase of new cars with emissions from 0 to 20 g/km of Co2 and with a list price of up to 42,700 euros, VAT included. In practice, pure electric ones. Throughout the month of May, 5,070 electric cars were registered. In the time window of a few hours in which the Invitalia platform allowed dealers to make reservations, 30,000 new electric cars.
The mystery of missing funds
The mystery relates to the amount of funds which, according to the associations, were not allocated in full. They would be missing from the roll call 178.3 million. If things were actually as the associations complain, for the automotive sector it would be a problem double damage. On the one hand, a large number of those entitled to benefit from the Ecobonus for the purchase of an electric car would have been prevented.
On the other hand, damage would have been caused to the market by fomenting false expectations: in May the car market in Italy recorded a negative sign of -6.9%. Going into concrete terms, this is 139,581 new cars registered compared to 149,482 in the same month last year. Many consumers have delayed the purchase of the car for a few months while waiting for the Ecobonus funds to be released, in order to access the incentives for scrapping and electricity, and several dealers have consequently left pre-orders on stand-by.
The accusations of the associations
“We were also surprised to discover on the day the platform opened that not all the funds foreseen for cars had been made available: 178.3 million are missing. To do this, it will now be necessary to issue a specific Prime Ministerial Decree, which we hope will happen as quickly as possible, to avoid yet another period of uncertainty that lies ahead for the market.” This is how he expressed himself Michele Crisci, president of Unrae, the national union representing foreign motor vehicles.
On the question of funds for electric cars he echoes Massimo Artusipresident of Federauto: “We express strong doubts about the exhaustion, which occurred in a few hours, of the Ecobonus funds for bookings relating to the Co2 range from 0 to 20 grams/km, in practice exclusively electric traction vehicles”.
And again: “It is clear that until the entry into force of the new Prime Ministerial Decree the absorption capacity in the 0-20 range has always been modest, so much so as to highlight a surplus of resources of around 170 million a few days after its entry into force of the new Ecobonuses. Moreover, this sales trend for low-emission vehicles is confirmed by empirical evidence from the market.”
Artusi therefore makes an appeal to the authorities: “We ask that the competent administrations urgently investigate this phenomenon which we consider absolutely anomalous and, probably, not in line with the rationale of the law which is to favor citizens and businesses, while they, the authentic ones, are at risk recipients of the measure, of ending up cut off from the benefit to bring them closer to the green transition”.
Clarity on policies for the ecological transition
But that’s not all: Unrae also hopes that a clear strategy will soon be indicated on supports for the transition, with a horizon of 2-3 years in order to “allow consumers and businesses to plan purchases and prevent the stop & go from creating further damage to the market”.
