The over 200 million euros of incentives for the purchase of electric cars planned for the year 2024 sold out in a single day. Resources also eliminated for non-electric motorcycles and mopeds and for electric commercial vehicles. No problem, however, for plug-in and endothermic cars, those that fall within the 61-135 g/km of CO2 range. Currently there are still 109 million and 196 million euros respectively (see photo below).
The new maxi incentives for cars, motorbikes and commercial vehicles worth one billion euros became operational from 3 June, with the opening of the booking platform managed by Invitalia. However, after just a few hours there was a drying up of funds for electric cars. A completely new phenomenon compared to the past, so much so that it leaves some experts in the sector perplexed. Many citizens, however, wonder why a good part of the resources went to the companies. But wasn’t the goal of the 2024 ecobonus to help families change cars? We asked the president of Federauto, Massimo Artusi, and the president of the Centro Studi Promotor, Gian Primo Quagliano.
Car incentives boom thanks to more substantial contributions
In just one day, all the 2024 incentives for electric cars, those that fall within the 0-20 g/km of CO2 range, evaporated, for a total of 201,042,172 euros. A phenomenon that has surprised even experts in the automotive sector, given that in the past the incentives for endothermic ones ran out in a very short time while for electric ones there were often large residual funds left. What has changed?
From Federauto to Centro Studi Promotor, via Unrae and Motus-E, there is talk of a growing interest among Italians in electric cars and a boom in bookings due to the long wait for the 2024 car bonus to come into force. Five months approximately, with many practices remaining on stand-by in dealers’ drawers. But it is the size of the incentives that makes the difference compared to the past. The state contribution, in fact, this year reaches up to 13,750 euros, but only if a car from Euro 0 to 2 is scrapped and if the interested party has an ISEE under 30,000 euros (see 2024 ecobonus table below). “These are amounts we have never had in the past. Suffice it to say that if you choose economical models that cost around 22-25,000 euros, the ecobonus covers more than half the price of the electric car”, he commented in an interview with Today.it on president of the Promotor Study Center, Gian Primo Quagliano.
Ecobonus for electric cars sold out: “Anomalous phenomenon”
But there are also those who see something strange in this rapid depletion of funds. The president of Federauto, Massimo Artusi, defined it as an “anomalous phenomenon” (see photo below). For this reason he asked for urgent responses from the competent administrations, fearing that what happened is not “in line with the rationale of the law which is to favor citizens and businesses”. “Moreover, this sales trend for low-emission vehicles is confirmed by the empirical evidence of the market.”
In an interview with Today.it, Artusi recalled that a few days after the entry into force of the new car bonuses there were still 171 million euros not requested for electric cars. Then in eight hours incentives for 26,000 cars were absorbed when 10,000 are sold on the national market in a year. “The math doesn’t add up. The numbers are so disproportionate that without thinking badly it’s good that they happen. It could also be a simple procedural or platform error”, declared the president of Federauto requesting access to the data, something that so far it was not possible to do this due to privacy problems.
38% of the money went to businesses
Meanwhile, the suspicion is starting to hover that some medium and long-term rental companies have entered many reservations while waiting to receive contracts. In fact, among the new features of the 2024 ecobonus is the opening of incentives to legal entities, with the exception of car dealers. In past years, however, the contribution was only foreseen for car sharing companies and was halved for car rental companies. Despite the opening to legal entities, however, the president of Federauto pointed out, “the numbers continue to be excessively disproportionate compared to the market trend”.
Car bonus: 38% of the money went to car rental companies
“No significant anomalies emerged”, points out the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy (Mimit). 62 percent of the bookings of the incentives for electric cars were made by natural persons through car dealers, while 38 percent by legal entities, including long-term rental companies, the ministry said. Potentially anomalous cases “stand at around 5 percent, a physiological figure and in line with the past, on which Mimit, once the checks have been completed, will proceed where appropriate with the necessary dispute procedures”. A response deemed “too sudden” by the president of Federauto Artusi, “one more reason to ask for access to the data”.
“This measure went through too much and badly before being approved”
“With this incentive plan we support families in purchasing an eco-friendly car by renewing the car fleet and at the same time stimulating national production. It is an Italy Plan, for families and for Italian work”, wrote the minister of Businesses and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso (see photo below). But then why did a good portion of public resources go to businesses? Many Italians ask themselves this question, mulling over the fact, for example, that leasing companies will obtain greater profits thanks to state incentives.
According to Massimo Artusi, it is right that the car incentives also went to businesses but they probably had to “be calibrated in a different way. This discussion was not made upstream because a provision like this passes through many hands and through many different ideas before arriving at the stamping and approval. This document in particular, the genesis of which began last year, took a lot of effort, it was done too much and badly”. On the subject, Gian Primo Quagliano instead argues that the exhaustion of funds for electric cars “is still a positive thing. The logic of car incentives is to encourage the maximum diffusion of non-polluting cars and not to benefit citizens or businesses The ecobonus must be seen essentially from an environmental point of view.”
Stop click-days and stop & gos
In the meantime, trade associations are taking sides against click-days and stop & gos because, according to them, they create further damage to the car market. They ask the government to build incentive policies with a broader time horizon, of at least 2-3 years, to allow citizens and businesses to plan their choices. Also because compared to pre-pandemic levels there is still a huge gap to fill. Suffice it to say that the final balance for the first five months of this year is 20.3 percent lower than that of 2019.
2024 car incentives not just for electric cars: who benefits most
But incentives for the president of Federauto Artusi are not the main point to be made. “No more ecobonuses. The car market doesn’t need this but a very urgent reform of the tax treatment on cars, given that in Italy VAT is not deductible and fringe benefits are not tax-free. The resources used for incentives should be invested on this, to have a ‘normal’ market in line with other EU countries in 5 years. In such a context, the ecobonus could only be used to overcome any shocks”.
