As we reported previously, France wants to rid its roads of old diesel cars, and to do so the country has announced that it is adjusting fuel taxes to be less favorable to diesel and offering a remarkable incentive to encourage owners of older diesels to buy electric cars.
How much of an incentive? According to Bloomberg News, the government will pay a bonus of as much as €10,000 ($11,422) to consumers who buy an electric car to replace an old diesel vehicle. The bonus program is to began in April.
From here in the US, where diesels make up a tiny portion of the passenger car fleet, one might wonder why France is doing this. But in France, diesels comprise more than 80 percent of the private passenger cars on the road, and a contribute to a significant air quality problem.
Modern diesels are remarkably clean, but France has a very high number of older, dirtier diesels still in use. Energy Minister Segolene Royal has been quoted as saying “We have to eliminate old diesel cars that are more than 13 years old and have no filters.” Royal indicated that measures against these types of polluting cars will make it “harder and harder” to use them.
The primary reason given for the action is environmental. Adjusting diesel prices via taxation will help reduce smog, Royal said. “Air pollution is a major public health issue. Sixty percent of the French population breathes air that isn’t healthy.”
Paris and other big French cities regularly issue warnings about air pollution caused in part by particulates from diesel fumes. Increasingly, these alerts have ignited debate over the taxes. The mayor of Paris has endorsed measures aimed at phasing out diesel vehicles in the city by 2020. Electric cars are, of course, best-suited to urban use.
But the national program is not aimed at killing off diesels entirely. “We have to be realistic because there are industries that make diesel cars, there are jobs involved” Royal said. French carmakers PSA/Peugeot-Citroen and Renault market new diesel-powered vehicles as being environmentally friendly because they can get more miles to the gallon than gasoline-fueled vehicles and are less polluting than older models.
Sixty-four percent of new cars sold last year in France to consumers ran on diesel, down from a high reached two years earlier of 73 percent, according to the country’s car manufacturers’ association CCFA. In countries such as Germany and the UK with different tax structures, the proportion of diesel cars was 47 percent and 50 percent respectively in 2013.
Still, in a country where an all-electric Nissan Leaf is priced at €18,090 and Renault’s battery-powered Zoe starts at €22,400 euros, a €10,000 bonue from the government is no small incentive.
Image right by Ben via Creative Commons
Image left by gadgetdude via Creative Commons