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By Gilles Guillaume
PARIS (Reuters) – Renault and Stellantis unveiled new French-made electric cars (EVs) at the Paris Motor Show on Monday as President Emmanuel Macron announced increased subsidies for poorer families to buy electric vehicles and pushed for higher production.
In an interview with Les Echos before visiting the fair, Macron said subsidies for electric cars for low-income families would rise from 6,000 to 7,000 euros next year, while falling to 5,000 euros for other French buyers.
He added that at the beginning of 2024 a “social rent” program would begin that helps low-income families with an electric vehicle for one hundred euros per month.
Most electric cars are lately more expensive than their fossil fuel counterparts and are unaffordable for many.
“We have a commercial strategy in position for other people to buy more and more French (cars),” Macron told Les Echos.
The lack of electric cars made in France is a sensitive issue at a house car show where Chinese car brands have a strong presence.
Apart from the aging Renault Zoé, the new Mégane, the Kangoo van and two small SUVs of the Opel and DS brands of Stellantis, all one hundred percent electric models announced through French brands are assembled abroad.
Versions of Stellantis’ Peugeot 308 sedan and the larger Peugeot 408 unveiled on Monday will be assembled in Mulhouse, eastern France.
“We said that Stellantis would protect the European auto industry and especially the French one,” Chief Executive Carlos Tavares said. “It’s a reality. “
Tavares said the number of models the world’s number one automaker produces in France will soon double from 6 to 12.
Renault’s new Renault EV, a small SUV with stylistic nods to the iconic L of the 1960s, will be produced at the automaker’s Maubeuge plant in northern France and go on sale in 2025.
The Renault Four will be aimed at the new electric Kanpasso, produced in Maubeuge, and the new Mégane manufactured in Douai, also in northern France. The electric Scenic and Renault five will also go into production in Douai through 202four.
Renault aims to be fully electric by 2030 and plans to unveil its strategy to create a unit focused on electrification and software, the main focus of the automotive industry, at an investor day on Nov. 8.
A separate unit will specialize in its classic activity of production with internal combustion engines.
When asked about expanding subsidies for electric vehicles made in Europe, as did the U. S. With his recently passed inflation reduction law, Macron told Les Echos that he had been in favor of this for years.
“I have a strong European preference,” he said.
($1 = 1. 0255 euros)
(Report through Gilles Guillaume in Paris; Writing through Nick Carey; Editing through David Gregorio and Mark Potter)