Only for cars with a limited carbon footprint
French President Emmanuel Macron wants to change the purchase subsidy scheme for electric cars to prevent too much of the government money from flowing away to countries such as China. Simply abolishing the subsidy for cars not built in Europe is undesirable, so from now on the country only wants to provide money for cars that leave a ‘limited’ ecological footprint during their production process.
In France, a subsidy scheme applies to the purchase of electric cars with a purchase price of less than €47,000, but if it is up to Emmanuel Macron, a few more criteria will be added from next year. He made this known in a speech on Thursday. The French president wants to prevent too much of the French tax money from flowing away to countries such as China, where more and more relatively affordable EVs come from. Simply abolishing the subsidy for Chinese cars, for example, is undesirable in connection with free trade principles, but there is another way to give priority to cars produced in Europe.
At least that’s what Macron thinks. Before 2024, France wants to concretise a plan in which there are only purchase subsidies for electric cars that do not leave a too large ecological footprint during their production process. Because the Chinese car industry still largely runs on ‘grey’ energy (from coal, for example), most cars from that country would not qualify for the subsidy.
Green industry on our own continent
Macron wants to prevent European tax money from fueling industrialization in distant countries and prefers to invest on his own continent in more sustainable production chains for batteries and cars; something that should be encouraged by this scheme. Incidentally, the president not only wants the sustainability and growth of the European car industry to be stimulated, but also that similar processes are initiated on other fronts.
For example, from 1 July 2024, France wants to take into account the origin of the resources needed for the energy transition, and therefore also have an eye for the ecological footprint of things such as wind turbines and heat pumps – and for the country of origin. The country will then stop tendering for (sustainability) projects that use ‘unsustainable’ resources.
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl