Spain studies French social car rental model: electric vehicles for €54/month

The French social car rental model: an electric vehicle for €54 a month

How much must a car's price rise before buying new stops making sense? In Spain, it has already peine: new car prices may have increased by up to 40% in five years, according to the Consumer and User Organization (OCU) study, and excluding an inflation rate above 15%, the real cost increase stands between 25% and 30%. The market has not collapsed; it has turned upside down. Two used cars are sold for every new one, and Spain's vehicle fleet, already the oldest in Europe, averages 14 years of age.

While Spain debates whether subsidies arrive or not, France launched in January a mechanism offering a new electric vehicle for just over €50 a month. The question is no longer whether the car is expensive. It is who pays, and with what formula.

Up to 40% more expensive in five years

The industry cites three reasons, none minor. First, investments imposed by Brussels for electrification, which manufacturers say has meant reinventing the automobile as we knew it. Second, mandatory safety equipment (ADAS), which has pushed every range upward. Third, the shortage of vehicles after ELbichito, which tightened supply and drove up costs.

With cars completely untouched by price cuts, not even Chinese electric vehicles, including subsidies, are within reach of an average buyer. This is the core issue: there is no entry-level range absorbing the demand pushed out by rising prices. When the product exceeds the budget, buyers do not protest. They buy used.

Why are two used cars sold for every new one?

Because the new car has become a disguised luxury item. The immediate consequence of the price hike is a shift toward the used market: two used sales for every new registration, a ratio that further ages one of the oldest vehicle fleets in Europe. Each year without renewal adds average age and delays the decarbonization supposedly being pursued.

Here appears the first contradiction in the official narrative: subsidies fund the purchase of cars no one can afford, while the market responds with cars twelve or fourteen years old. Some debate participants suggest an alternative: it would have been easier to promote a small, simple car with less electronics rather than increasing the price of the entire range.

Anfac's warning: no electric vehicles, no factories

The latest to say this is Wayne Griffiths, president of Anfac (the Spanish Association of Automobile Manufacturers) and simultaneously of Seat and Cupra: if more electric vehicles are not sold in Spain, they will stop being manufactured. This is not a rhetorical threat. The automotive industry accounts for 11% of Spain's GDP and generates more than 600,000 annual jobs.

This reasoning contains, for some debate participants, a logical trap: buyers are asked to purchase a product whose price may have risen by 40% so that factories remain open. The chain holds only by its weakest link, and that link pays the bill.

What is the social car rental model France launched in January?

It is a formula for accessing a new electric vehicle with a monthly fee subsidized by the state, designed for low-income households. It allows access to a vehicle for just over €50 a month, including a home charger (wallbox). The French government contributes up to €13,000 per vehicle, and the scheme allows between four and five million people to qualify, provided their income is less than €15,000 per family unit member.

Monthly fees by model:

• Citroën e-C3: €54/month
• Fiat 500: €89/month
• Opel Corsa EV: €94/month
• Peugeot e-208: €99/month
• Opel Mokka EV: €119/month
• Citroën e-C4: €129/month
• Jeep Avenger: €149/month
• Peugeot e-2008: €149/month

Most are models produced in France by Stellantis and Renault groups, a detail that is no coincidence: public subsidies buy cars and support national factories simultaneously.

From Yolanda Díaz to Plan Moves 3: the Spanish case

In Spain, the idea arrived politically before administratively. In November, Yolanda Díaz proposed linking Plan Moves 3 subsidies to income levels, exactly the criterion France has made a requirement. Meanwhile, the government extended Plan Moves 3 until June and secured a commitment from Anfac to take revitalization measures in the first quarter.

According to a summary of the debate, the Spanish problem is not design but execution: purchase subsidies exist on paper but fail in practice, lacking guaranteed approval, with opaque timelines and tax uncertainties. The practical conclusion drawn is to buy without counting on the subsidy, treating it as a bonus if it arrives.

Several participants point out a detail unresolved by either administration: parking space. A €54 monthly fee is useless if the car sleeps on the street and requires an extension cord from a window. This is where subsidized mobility collides with urban reality.

Ultimately, the arithmetic is simple. The state provides the car, the fee, and the charger. Someone must provide the garage. And regarding that, for now, there is no plan.