In 2040, just 23 years from now, the sale of any new car with a petrol or diesel engine will be banned, the French Government have announced.
The French, it seems, are taking the climate accords very seriously under new President Emmanuel Macron, who wants the country to become carbon neutral. Although France relies on nuclear power for some 80% of its domestic and industrial energy, reaching the goal of carbon neutrality means that combustion engines will have to be scrapped.
“We are announcing an end to the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2040” said France’s Ecology Minister Nicolas Hulot. He called the move a “veritable revolution”.
This move follows Volvo’s announcement that all its models from 2019 would be electrified and that Mercedes-Benz planned to build battery-electric cars from 2020 in partnership with Chinese car maker BAIC.
Automotive brands in France are already ahead of the curve to meet this law. The Renault-Nissan alliance is already the world’s largest manufacturer of battery-electric cars and Mitsubishi, their latest acquisition, is a world leader in plug-in hybrids.
The alliance accounts for nearly 450,000 of the two million electric cars sold globally, but pure BEVs still only accounted for just 0.6% of new car registrations in Europe last year.
According to the European Environment Agency, which keeps records of vehicle emissions, Peugeot, Citroen and Renault are ranked first, second, and third respectively out of all the continent’s large car makers.
The owner of Peugeot and Citroen, PSA, is set to take over rival Opel following acceptance by the EU’s monopoly commission. They will deliver a new range of battery-electric and hybrids from 2019, in partnership with Chinese car maker Dongfeng who is now a 14% stakeholder and have developed an entirely new architecture.
“The target is a tough one, but France wants to become the number one green economy,” Hulot insisted.
In order to achieve this, however, France will have to overtake Norway. The Scandinavian country claims the world’s highest take-up of electric cars per-capita, which is aided by Government subsidies. The country has also set itself a target of permitting only BEVs and hybrids by 2025 – only eight years away.
The upper house of Germany is also pushing for an end to internal-combustion-driven cars by 2030, as has India, although neither country has had these suggestions bound into law as yet.
The French statement said: “Our (car) makers have enough ideas in the drawer to nurture and bring about this promise, which is also a public health issue.” This suggests the Government isn’t making the move without the input of the French car industry, which includes Renault, Dacia, Peugeot, Citroen and DS.”
One of the major other reasons for the deadline was public health, said long-term environmental campaigner Hulot. “It is a way to fight against air pollution.”
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