An arrêté published in France's Journal officiel on 12 August creates a purchase grant for used electric cars from 1 September 2026. It is a real scheme with a real funding line, and it is a good deal smaller than the numbers that travelled alongside it: most private buyers will receive about €337.
What the scheme actually pays
The grant is financed through the certificats d'économie d'énergie (CEE) system — an obligation on energy suppliers rather than a line in the state budget — so the amount follows the CEE price the government applies rather than a fixed subsidy. At the current level that is roughly €337 per vehicle.
The larger figures in circulation are real but narrow. Multiplier coefficients running to the end of 2026 lift the grant to between €2,000 and €2,360 for home-care and personal-services professionals, and only on a vehicle costing under €25,000. Everyone else gets the base amount. The scheme runs to 31 August 2030.
The five conditions
| Condition | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Powertrain | 100% electric |
| First registered in France | 1 January 2017 – 31 December 2023 |
| Battery health | At least 80% of original capacity |
| Seller | An automotive professional — private sales excluded |
| Retention | Keep the car at least three years |
The battery certificate is the part that bites
The 80% rule is not self-certified. The buyer needs a battery state-of-health certificate produced by a recognised diagnostic tool, and eligibility turns on that document. A seller who cannot produce one leaves the buyer to find out about the refusal after the sale has already completed.
For a used Tesla that is a specific practical problem. The car does not display a state-of-health percentage anywhere in its own interface, so the figure has to come from a diagnostic read that the seller runs. Ask for it before signing, not after.
What it means for a Model 3 or Model Y owner
The registration window is the interesting part. Tesla began French Model 3 deliveries in 2019 and Model Y deliveries in 2021, so both sit inside the 2017–2023 band — the Model 3 for its whole French run to that point. They are also among the most-traded used EVs in the country, so a large share of the cars this grant touches will be Teslas.
The 80% threshold is unlikely to be the obstacle. TeslAnt reported this week that used Model S prices have collapsed while the batteries largely have not, and pack longevity has consistently outrun resale value. The obstacle is procedural: the certificate has to exist, and the sale has to go through a professional. Tesla's own used-car channel qualifies; a private sale between two owners does not. That cuts both ways: an owner selling a Model 3 in France now has a reason to run the state-of-health read before the car reaches a forecourt.
Bottom line
€337 will not decide anyone's purchase on its own. It is worth claiming, it lands on an already-falling used-EV market, and the price of collecting it is one document requested at the right moment.
The contrast with the new-car side is the more telling number. France currently lets a buyer stack up to €10,700 in aid on a new Model Y, including an income-based CEE grant of €3,600–€5,700 — the same mechanism funding this one. That the used-car version of that grant arrives at €337 says where the French government still thinks the transition needs pushing, and where it now expects the market to look after itself.