17 years have passed since Elon Musk dazzled the world with the first Tesla prototype and laid the foundations that the electric car would be the car of the future. But this future is having a hard time getting off the ground, despite the fact that almost all brands now have electric vehicles and public incentive programs follow one another. “The problem is that electric vehicles are not sold”, said Wayne Griffiths, president of Anfac and CEO of Seat, this week.
To change this reality, the Council of Ministers agreed on Tuesday to approve a measure that the automotive sector has been demanding for years: that the incentive to buy a vehicle be linked to taxation. From June 30, those who buy an electrified vehicle (electric, plug-in hybrid) worth less than 45,000 euros (not including VAT) will be able to obtain a 15% discount on the tax return income up to a maximum base of 20,000 euros. In other words, a maximum reduction of 3,000 euros. The discount also applies to mopeds and motorbikes, and in this case the limit is 10,000 euros (not including taxes), which has caused protests from Anesdor, the employers’ association for two-wheeled vehicles.
This amount will be calculated after having applied the direct discounts of the current Moves III incentive plan, which give the right to 7,000 euros when buying these vehicles if a diesel or gasoline car is previously sent to the scrapyard.
The subsidies will also be extended to the charging points, for which the 15% deductible will be applicable to a maximum amount of 4,000 euros per year and will be applied when the installation is completed.
The measure has been very well received by the sector. It is true that the incentive of the Moves plans managed by the autonomous communities with this same intention is not being as effective as expected. Spain is the leader in the deployment of electrified fleets in Europe, according to data published by the association of vehicle manufacturers Anfac. Sales of 100% electric passenger cars barely reach 4.7%.
The automotive sector also recognizes that more is needed. “A deeper and more comprehensive tax reform should be proposed, and others, such as the elimination of the requirement that subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles count as income from work in the income statement,” says Arturo Perez de Lucia, president of the Business Association for the Development and Promotion of Electric Mobility (Aedive). Anfac is asking for “direct aid at the time of purchase”.
The biggest obstacle to the purchase of an electric vehicle is the price. Half of Spaniards do not even consider buying an electric car, according to the Study on the Energy Transition prepared by Plenoil. Among those who consider it, 61.25% rule it out because of the price. And what is more relevant, only half of Spaniards would consider applying for financial aid to access this purchase. They are “those with high incomes, higher education and have already decided to buy the electric car. And of those, 27% would only request them if the price of the vehicle came close to the current combustion ones”, reflects the study.
“We have spent much more than 2,000 million euros on these incentives and no one has done any evaluation of their effectiveness. Only the Bank of Spain has made an approximate analysis and the result is that it does not meet the objective of encouraging sales”, says Juan Luis Jiménez, Professor of Economics at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. He also adds that “nor do they lower the price of the cars because they are diluted in the sales chain and only those who can already buy one of these vehicles enjoy it”. In his opinion, public money would be better invested in “recharging infrastructures”, the other big brake on the purchase pointed out by the Plenoil report. “Now only those who have somewhere to charge it and solar panels buy an electric car, that is to say, the highest classes”, says Jiménez.
