France puts electric cars at centre of $13.2bn plan to kickstart auto industry

The Driven

French president Emmanuel Macron has announced France will seek to jump-start the local auto industry decimated by the Coronavirus pandemic with an €8 billion ($A13.2 billion) plan that includes a major boost for electric vehicles.

Speaking at a press event in northern France on the site of an auto parts factory, Macron said the French government wants France to take a leading role in the European EV market.

“We need a motivational goal: Make France Europe’s top producer of clean vehicles by bringing output to more than 1 million electric and hybrid cars per year over the next five years,” Macron was quoted as saying by Automotive News Europe.

The multi-billion dollar plan will include raising France’s electric vehicle subsidy from €6,000 ($A9,910) to €7,000 ($A11,560) for private vehicle owners from June 1 to December 31, 2020.

Commercial fleets would be able to access a €5,000 ($A8,260) subsidy while plug-in hybrid vehicles would attract a €2,000 ($A3,300) subsidy if they have an all-electric range of at least 50km and do not cost more than €50,000 ( ($A82,600).

The subsidies would be available for the first 200,000 vehicles bought under the scheme.

In addition to the purchase incentive, France will also revisit incentives to scrap old, polluting vehicles that could see French drivers receive €12,000 ($A19,810) worth of incentives if they both scrap a vehicle and buy a new all-electric vehicle.

The new measures to encourage the transition to electric vehicles could prove exceedingly popular.

To read the full version of this story – and view the photo gallery – on RenewEconomy’s electric vehicle dedicated site, The Driven, click here…

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