With a market share of more than 70%, still according to the estimates of Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, the French-Italian-American automaker comes out on top with 30,000 orders in the social leasing contracts in France. Renault got just over 10,000 orders, according to CEO Luca de Meo. That the difference in terms of sales between the two automakers is so large has its reasons.

Stellantis put a total of 12 brand models on display for the social leasing, compared to only two at first and then four models for Renault. Stellantis offered its electric Peugeot 208 (€99 per month), the Fiat 500 (€89), Opel Corsa (€94), or the Citroën e-C3 even at an awesome €54 per month in mid-December, as well as larger models, such as the Jeep Avenger (€149).

Renault initially offered only two cars, the Twingo E-Tech at an incredibly low price of €40 per month or the Megane E-Tech at €150. Later it added the Zoe E-tech (€100 per month), and the Kangoo E-Tech (€150).

Moreover, the concept of social leasing was widely supported from the start by the management of Stellantis’, which had co-initiated the initiative, while Renault was initially rather skeptical. And unlike Renault, Stellantis also used social leasing to make it a real marketing operation. Over the weeks, like a rally race, the group indicated the ranking and number of contracts signed.

“Need for these subsidies”

Despite that success, Stellantis – the group pulled in record profits of 18,6 billion euros in 2023 – and Renault, with a net result of almost 2,2 billion euros last year, are nevertheless not happy with the decision to temporarily pull the plug on social leasing for the time being.

“Social leasing was an excellent initiative to protect the freedom of movement of the most restricted households,” de Meo said. According to him, there is “a need for these subsidies” because “there is not yet a natural market” for EVS. “We will need a somewhat medium-term strategy to still have support,” he told BFM Business, calling especially to avoid a sharp decline in the market, referring to the German situation.

The German government decided in December to abruptly end premiums when buying an EV. The premium was one of the victims of Germany’s fiscal crisis after the constitutional court canceled the reallocation of unused COVID-19 credits to the green transition.

Experts also warned then that scrapping the premium could be a severe blow to the German car sector. And in January, the market for new EV sales in Germany represented only 10% of the market, compared with 18,4% for the year 2023.

Premium of €4,000 is still available

At the same time, some distributors in France are also wondering how they will manage the simultaneous return of 50,000 cars over three years. They are also questioning what condition the cars will return in and at what price they can resell them second-hand.

It is also one of the reasons why Renault’s management, for example, would have preferred a social lease with recent used cars. With EVs, the question arises as to the “residual value” of the vehicle once the lease expires after three years.

Apart from social leasing, there is also an ecological bonus in France. This is much less generous, though. It was recently reduced from 5,000 to 4,000 euros for all customers buying an EV and maintained at 7,000 euros for low-income households.