The minimum period during which you cannot resell a vehicle if you want to take advantage of the ecological bonus on purchase goes from six months to one year. This measure aims to counter abusive practices.
Until now, to benefit from the ecological bonus on the purchase of an eligible vehicle, you had to commit to keeping it for at least six months before reselling it, among other conditions. This period increases to one year, after the publication of a decree in Official newspaper of April 27, 2022. Cars that have benefited from this aid after switching from thermal to electric – a practice known as retrofitting – are also affected by this legislative change.
An obstacle to certain schemes
This extension of the resale period is intended in particular to prevent abuse. Some had indeed found a “good vein”: just six months after acquiring their vehicle at a significantly reduced price thanks to the bonus, they resold it for more than its final purchase price to buyers who cannot benefit from such favorable aid, particularly abroad. This phenomenon may have been amplified in recent months by the difficulties in supplying dealers with new cars, by the resulting increase in demand for very recent second-hand models, as well as by the strong and regular inflation of the prices of new vehicles.
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Unchanged bonus amount and mileage
The minimum mileage to cover before reselling a car bought with an ecological bonus remains unchanged; it is still 6,000 km. The amount does not change either, with a ceiling set at €6,000 for the purchase of an electric car in mainland France. A reduction of €1,000 remains scheduled for the moment at 1er July 2022, but the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, recently hinted that the current scale could be extended by six months. However, this remains to be confirmed.
The new decree brings other modifications to the terms of allocation of the bonus, which do not directly concern the automobile. Thus, small tourist road trains are now eligible for the bonus, certain heavy vehicles can now take advantage of the retrofit bonus, and identification is now mandatory for electric bicycles if their buyers want to benefit from the bonus.
