Italy raises e-mobility subsidy budget

The Italian government is making another 100 million euros available from 27 October, primarily for the promotion of electric and hybrid vehicles. However, the ‘Ecobonus’ is scaled according to CO2 emissions and vehicle classes – so the full amount is not simply available for fully electric vehicles.

Specifically, 65 million euros will be allocated to vehicles with CO2 emissions between 0-60 g/km CO2 – not only for purchase, but also for leasing. But even in this class there are two further subdivisions: Vehicles with emissions between 0 and 20 g/km CO2 (which plug-in hybrids usually do not manage in practice) are subsidised with up to 6,000 euros if an old vehicle is scrapped at the same time – without scrapping it is still 4,000 euros. Vehicles with emissions between 21 and 60 g/km are subsidised with 2,500 euros (with scrapping) or 1,500 euros (without scrapping).

Another 20 million are earmarked for commercial and special vehicles, 15 million of which are exclusively for electric vehicles. Here, the maximum subsidy per vehicle is 8,000 euros – graduated according to the total weight of the vehicles.

Two further funding options from the 100-million-euro budget are intended to promote the switch to more fuel-efficient combustion vehicles. Here, the scrapping of a car that is at least ten years old is mandatory. Ten million euros are budgeted for the promotion of new cars, five million euros for the purchase of young used cars (at least Euro6d and less than 160 g/km CO2).

Applications will be possible from Wednesday, 27 October at 10 a.m. via an online platform. The new subsidy will be refinanced by a tax ordinance that the Council of Ministers passed in mid-October.

The Italian government had only raised the subsidy rates in July last year – at that time as a measure to cope with the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. At that time, subsidies of up to 10,000 euros were possible for a new electric car if an old combustion engine was scrapped, and up to 6,000 euros if it was not scrapped. With the current subsidy, the government has cancelled these increased subsidy rates and returned to the existing rates. The PHEV subsidy is now also lower than in the summer.

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