Social leasing: full order book at Fiat

In case you didn't know, announced in December 2023 and active since January 1, 2024, social leasing is the French government's new solution for accelerating the ecological transition of electric vehicles. Christophe Béchu, the French Minister for Ecological Transition, announced today that he has already registered 90,000 applications in less than a monthincluding 20,000 orders for Stellantis Group models.

This is a criticism often levelled at electric vehicles (among others), their price. Whereas the ecological bonus is €4,000 for the wealthiest households, social leasing is an extra helping hand for households with a tax income of up to €15,400 a year.

It is, it has to be said, yet another subsidy to support electric car sales. Let's be clear, between gigafactory battery investments, and two automotive groups, Stellantis and Renault, in which the French state is a shareholder, there's no question of going back on EVs. Social leasing is therefore a major boost, because, on a Fiat 600, it still represents a state subsidy of €13,000 on a vehicle worth €35,900... Do the math, 13,000 x 90,000... But that's another subject.

As mentioned in the introduction, of the 90,000 orders, 20,000 are allocated to Stellantis Group brands. Among the eligible models, the electric Fiat 500 available from €49/month and the electric Fiat 600 La Prima from €149/month. According to our information, these are orders whose applications have been accepted. After interviewing a number of Fiat dealers, we were told that they had to cope with very busy showrooms, managing and piling up finance applications, but also having to deal with applications that had been turned down because they were not solvent.

Stellantis claims in its press release that around a hundred thousand potential customers have contacted the group's brands. With such success, one wonders what the limit of the checkbook will be.