What is the principle of the ecological bonus when buying a car in France?

Summary: the ecological bonus-malus consists, on the one hand, in "penalizing" the buyers of heavy and powerful vehicles emitting more carbon dioxide than the average and, on the other hand, in "benefiting" consumers who buy less energy-consuming cars. One can nevertheless wonder about the designation “ecological bonus” on cars which are, for the moment, far from being ecological, even the cars say “clean”.

Application of the ecological bonus: 2 case

a) the car dealer sells you the bonus vehicle and gives you the green bonus in the form of a discount.
b) the State reimburses you directly for the amount of the ecological bonus. The buyer must then send his invoice for the purchase of the vehicle to the operator.

Great ecological bonus?

This is an additional bonus, there are several scenarios.

a) Breakage bonus

It applies to orders placed from December 5, 2007.
Since this date any order for a vehicle benefiting from an ecological bonus and accompanied by the withdrawal of a vehicle over 15 years old triggers the payment of a super bonus of 300 euros. This premium is mainly used to renew the park.

b) Electric car

Very rare but they do exist: these cars benefit from an exceptional bonus amount of 5000 euros.

Functioning of the penalty and ecological bonus

a) The ecological penalty only concerns 25% of sales of vehicles distributed each year on the French market. This means two things: 75% of the French car fleet escapes the penalty and sometimes benefits from a bonus. The state is supposed to balance the revenue of the malus with the expenditure of the bonuses. In other words: sum collected malus = sum paid bonus. This is the theory, in practice it is too early to say whether the state will keep its word.

In addition, this will help reduce the car fleet and most consumers will not be impacted.

b) For dealers, the ecological bonus risks being badly perceived because the economy of a dealer is essentially based on the sale of medium or high-end vehicles now “penalized” by the penalty.

Date of entry into force of the ecological bonus and penalty

The bonus applies from December 5, 2007. The vehicle order date is taken into account.

The penalty does not apply until January 1, 2008. It is, in this case, the date of first registration that counts.

More:
- series of questions / answers on the bonus for new cars by the government
- Listing and amounts of cars subject to the Malus Bonus