France raises emissions penalty threshold for 2020

23 December 2019

In further moves to encourage the purchase of cars with zero or low emissions, the French government has announced changes in 2020 to its emissions penalty system that include a multiplication of five or six in the taxes paid and a change to the penalty threshold which currently stands at €12,500.

It said that the cap of €12,500 will be raised to €20,000 and that there will be a continuous reduction in the incentives for individuals by 2022 and the incentives for company cars/fleets will be halved by 2020. The government first announced details of the tax changes in November.

By 2022 the government will have reduced the individual incentive to €4000 and for company cars/fleets, which holds the greatest potential for growth in purchase of electric vehicles, it will have been divided by six.

Specifically for 2020 the government has set a target of doubling the sales of fully electric and hybrid cars while the incentives increase by only 50%.

Luc Chatel, president of the French automotive body, the PFA, noted: ′With an unprecedented hardening of fines and an incentive reduced to a minimum by 2022, this is a double hit for the consumer. All in all the big risk is that everyone will lose: industry, the environment and the purchasing power of the French public.’