Italian car associations call for Ecobonus review

Market: Electricity
24/04/20

Italy needs to increase the incentives for buying electric and hybrid vehicles to cope with the decline in demand owing to the Covid-19 outbreak, the national association of foreign car makers UNRAE said.

The "Ecobonus" scheme should allow a wider range of cars to receive incentives, the association said in a hearing with the Senate's industry commission. Vehicles emitting CO2 of 61-95g/km should be included in the scheme, receiving a bonus between €1,000 and €2,000. The threshold of 95g/km would respect the new EU target starting from this year, UNRAE said.

The Ecobonus, which has been operational since April 2019, provides a bonus between €4,000 and €6,000 for cars with emissions lower or equal to 20g/km and a bonus of €1,500-€2,500 for vehicles emitting CO2 of 20-60g/km.

Incentives for the 20-60g/km band should also be increased to €2,500-€4,000, UNRAE said.

The Italian federation of car dealers Federauto called for the same increases and proposed an additional incentive of €1,000-€2,000 only for this year. This would be valid for cars already in dealers' stocks before 11 March.

The introduction of a third band in the scheme was supported by national automobile trade association Anfia.

The number of new electric cars fell to 927 in March 2020 from 2,525 in February while hybrid vehicle registrations fell by 14,129 month on month to 3,921, Anfia data show. But the number of both electric and hybrid registrations was still higher than March 2019 when the Ecobonus was not in place.

The scheme has had more of an impact on private vehicles than business cars.

New electric private vehicles soared by 344pc to 3,340 units in 2019 compared with around 165pc the previous year. Business cars increased by only 72pc to 7,323, compared with a 144pc rise from 2017 to 2018, Anfia data show.

Private vehicle registrations fell by 60pc month on month to 370 units in March this year while business cars dropped by 65pc to 557.

By Fabio Roccon

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30/04/25

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30/04/25

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