An unexpected success accompanied the opening of the platform for 2024 car incentives. The beyond 201 million euros dedicated to electric carswith an emission range of 0-20 g/km of CO2, were pulverized in a single day. In comparison, the hybrid cars (21-60 grams per km of CO2) e plug-in hybrids (61-135 grams per km of CO2) had a decidedly lower response: only 7 million out of 125.7 available were used for plug-in hybrids, while for hybrids the figure rises to 64 million out of over 276.6 .
In short, a two-speed framework that leaves room for doubts and questions. A boom for zero-emission cars, which however left some observers stunned.
Electric car incentives boom: doubts and perplexities
How is it possible that such a treasure could have been burned so quickly? In past years, with the same incentives, resources for electric vehicles often advanced. What has changed?
Massimo Artusi, president of Federauto, points the finger at the online booking system, hypothesizing that speculation or undue access may have reigned supreme. A hypothesis that finds fertile ground in market data: the demand for electric cars, in the past, had never been so high, indeed, there were often considerable surpluses of funds.
In short, something isn’t right. And precisely for this reason Federauto asks for clarificationto investigate thoroughly to understand the causes of this flash exhaustion.
Whether it was a real assault on electric cars or a system malfunction, the response is fundamental to prevent it from happening again in the future. The electric car market is growing, the potential is enormous, but transparency and protection are needed for citizens and companies who really want to do their part for a greener future.
Electric car incentives: it is still a success
The depletion of funds, although anomalous and sudden, highlights a strong interest in electric cars by the public. An interest which, according to Gian Primo Quagliano, president of the Centro Studi Promotor, is due both to the size of the incentives and to a growing sensitivity towards sustainable mobility.
“It’s surprising interest in electric cars favorably certainly due to the size of the incentives, but hopefully also to an increased interest in this type of car. And the relative modesty of the quota of reservations for endothermic cars with emissions of no more than 135 grams of CO2 per kilometer is also surprising, cars for which in the past the allocations for incentives ran out in a very short time”, commented the president of the Promoter Study Center, Gian primo Quagliano.
However, the market says otherwise: electric car sales -18% in May
The data on registrations for May, however, tell a different story. The electric carswhile waiting for the incentives, they have suffered a decline of 18.3%while the market as a whole fell 6.6% compared to May 2023. The plug-in hybrids (Phev) dropped by 30.5% in May and by 25.7% in the five months, representing 3.3% of registrations in a single month and 3.2% of the total from the beginning of the year.
But the entire car market is slowing down. A decline which, according to operators, was predictable and due precisely to the postponement of purchases awaiting the arrival of the incentives. In Italy the cars registered last month were 139,581, marking -6.62% on the same month of 2023. However, if we look at the first five months of 2024 the balance is positive, with growth of 3.4%.
“We expect that in the next few months it will be possible reverse the trend in registrations of plug-in carswhich has been decreasing since last January, supporting the demand for green technologies and at the same time the pace of renewal of the fleet, also thanks to the extension of the measure to all legal entities with the exception of dealers”, he declared Roberto Vavassoripresident of Anfia.
L’UnraeHowever, he points out that “not all the funds have been made available” and that “it will be necessary to issue a specific Prime Ministerial Decree as soon as possible to avoid yet another period of uncertainty that lies ahead for the market”.
