• The license-free car is all the rage among teenagers, and the phenomenon particularly affects the region, where registrations are on the rise.

  • Like Sofia, parents give in to the pressure because the solution is safer than a scooter, and for lack of transport.

  • According to the dealers, the license-free car, certainly more present among the golden youth, tends to democratize.

    It sells very well once the license age is reached.

They have just taken the plunge of the license-free car for their 15-year-old daughter. "She's been harassing us for a year to buy her, I thought she was really young," says Sofia, mother of a high school student in Allauch, near Marseille. "It's a real phenomenon, it's the scooter before," she observes. They call it a "P-free", there are plenty of them in high school parking lots. What made him change his mind? Repeated journeys to go to school and to activities: “It is so that it can be independent, our neighborhood is poorly served, the school is ten minutes by car, but an hour by bus. "

“At first, when the success started, I didn't care, I thought it was useless, there is transport, but when I saw more and more, I said to myself that it could be not bad ”, continues her daughter, now the happy owner of a dark gray Ligier, bought 7,500 euros second-hand via Le Bon Coin.

With "cool options", like Bluetooth for listening to music.

At the moment, she has not driven it yet.

It must pass before the road safety certificate, that is to say eight hours of training, including three of driving.

And already knows the rules imposed by his parents: no phone while driving, no Snapchat, and no third passenger in the trunk.

Between 9,000 and 16,000 euros for new

"We have a chassis in the hall, from the moment the parents see it, they have understood everything, they feel their children are safe, unlike the scooter", testifies Nadège Gérard, sales manager at JMB Autos, license-free car dealership in Marseilles. The phone calls don't stop. "We have doubled our sales in a few years, and the pandemic has further accelerated things, people no longer want their children to take the bus," she says. The big success of the house? The Ligier JS50, in “Audi” gray.

According to her, it takes between 9,000 and 16,000 euros for a new license-free car.

And 5,000 to 10,000 for one occasion.

"Since the law has advanced to 14 years, instead of 16, the age to drive these cars, it is no longer just the golden youth who buy them," she says, explaining that a credit on several years, until the child's 18 years, then becomes interesting.

Especially since the second-hand market is doing very well.

"We have very few opportunities," says Frank Bellavia, manager of the Marseille license without a license.

All these cars are overvalued on resale, you don't necessarily lose a lot between the initial investment, if you keep it for two years.

We spend a lot of credits.

"

Snowball effect

It markets the Aixam ranges, one of the traditional manufacturers with Ligier, Microcar, Chatenet or Bellier, not to mention Citroën which launched in May 2020 the Friend, a license-free electric car in the shape of a small cube. “Our historical clientele was more people who have never been able to obtain a license, or who have a disability,” he continues. The trend is reversed, we sell more to young people. In the end, it is a bodied scooter, which is reassuring for parents. "

“Afterwards, there is a snowball effect, the parking lots of middle and high schools, it becomes exhibition halls now!

The trend can be seen a lot in front of private establishments, rather located in the south of the city.

To hear it, it is not only local, even if the registrations of cars without a license increased between 2016 and 2020 by 30% in the Bouches-du-Rhône and 45% in the Var and the Alpes-Maritimes, and even doubled in Corsica, according to AAAdata, data expert on the French car fleet.

"In Italy, it's a hit," he says.

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  • High school student

  • Automotive

  • Marseilles

  • Youth

  • Driver's license

  • Car

  • Society