Just like Britain, France suffers from terrible air pollution. Their diesel and petrol vehicles are contributing heavily to the extent of the pollution. Currently, Paris has acted on the pollution by implementing no-car zones, car-free days and they impose fines on anyone who enters the city with a car that is 20 years old and above.
Tax incentives
In France, anybody who chooses to buy an electric car will be given tax incentives. This means that they will pay less tax than their counterparts that are driving petrol or diesel cars.
Initially, their incentives were only targeting at lower-income families. However, in the latest government budget, they intend to extend the discounts to all citizens in France.
Additionally, cars that emit between 21 and 60g CO2/km, they will receive up to 1,000 euros in tax rebates. While a car emitting 20g CO2/km or less, they could receive up to 6,300 euros in tax rebates.
A third incentive scheme will grant 10,000 euros to alt-car buyers when they scrap their old diesel car. This is part of their attempt to phase out the traditional fuel cars and to encourage people to switch out to alt-cars, such as electric cars.
Lastly, electric vehicles are exempt from the company car tax, while hybrids emitting less than 110g CO2/km will be exempted for 2 years from company car tax (from date of registration).
Evaluation
A big barrier to people switching to electric cars is the price of them. Their technology makes it more expensive, compared to traditional fuel cars. Therefore, by targeting the root cause of the problem, this lifts the barrier and will make the option of an electric car more accessible.
Charging infrastructure
France has developed a strategic roadmap that maps out their goals up till 2050 for the charging infrastructure. Their main goal is to ensure that the charging infrastructure is always accessibly located in an average person’s daily life. This means that an average person will be able to charge their alt-car in a public parking lot, at home and at work. In their strategic roadmap, they identify all the goals they hope to achieve in 2020 and 2050. They also analyse the steps needed to achieve those goals, and they analyse the challenges they may face along the way.
Evaluation
Their plans to make the charging infrastructure available in the 3 main domains in a person’s life means that accessibility will be very high. In fact, people will want to drive their electric or hybrid car out every day and for as long as they wish because the sheer amount of charging points allows them to.
This is by far, the highest commitment level witnessed amongst the countries I have researched on. France has taken their commitment to the next level. It is clear that the France government is determined to make their change a successful one, and that they are taking this very seriously. Like they say, you plan to fail if you fail to plan. I doubt France will be failing in their move to make their country a greener and less polluted one.
Total ban
Paris has made plans to ban all cars, except for electric cars, in the city by 2030. France as a whole hopes to ban the sale of diesel and petroleum vehicles by 2040. These are all forms of blanket bans.
Evaluation
Bans are the perfect solution to completely stopping an undesirable behaviour. Doing so in advance, allows car manufacturers, city planners, consumers, businesses & any other stakeholder to plan ahead and make the necessary changes. It will also force everyone to change their lifestyles and their future plans such that they align with the goals of the government. Especially when change is hard and occur very slowly, bans work best and they will guarantee results.
Air quality certificate
Early on in 2017, France passed a law that stated all vehicles (from motorcycles to heavy goods vehicles) would have to place a sticker on their windscreens. There are 6 types of stickers altogether. The stickers will indicate the vehicle’s environmental class, by taking into consideration the vehicle’s age, and air pollutant emissions. The larger the number on one’s certificate, the more polluting their vehicle.
The air quality certificate is required when one is driving in restricted traffic zones. If you don’t have one, you cannot enter. Or you will pay a fine to the government. Lastly, some vehicles are not covered by the certificate because their vehicles are the biggest pollutants. By not giving them a certificate entirely, they are also subject to being unable to enter certain zones and paying fines.
Evaluation
The biggest benefit from this new law is that it will encourage people to drive vehicles that are less polluting and to dissuade them from driving vehicles that are contributing heavily to air pollution. Furthermore, there is a fine if your vehicle is not displaying the certificate. This fine may be used in other efforts to reduce air pollution and improve air quality. Essentially, anybody that evades the law, will be paying for the externalities they have created.