\n \n \n “. concat(self. i18n. t(‘search. voice. recognition_retry’), “\n
(Stellantis vehicles added, control comments)
By Gilles Guillaume
PARIS, Oct 17 (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 business strategy in place 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 in 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’s organization aims to go from one hundred percent electric until 2030 and must present, in an investor day on November 8, its strategy to create a unit aimed at electrification and software, the great concentrate of the automotive industry.
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) (Gilles Guillaume reports from Paris; writing by Nick Carey; editing by David Gregorio and Mark Potter)