For a region so in love with diesel like Europe, this is news to us. France is planning to gradually phase out the use of diesel for passenger cars and implement a pollution ranking system for cars, prime minister Manuel Valls has said, reports Automotive News Europe.
"In France, we have long favoured the diesel engine. This was a mistake, and we will progressively undo that, intelligently and pragmatically," Valls was quoted as saying.
Next year, the government will launch a car identification system that will rank cars by the amount of pollution they emit, making it possible for local authorities to limit city access for the dirtiest cars.
Valls said that taxation will have to lure the people towards more eco-friendly choices, and that the 2015 state budget measures will attempt to reduce the tax advantage of diesel fuel over gas.
Plus, there exist plans to widen the number of beneficiaries of a subsidy for the conversion of old diesel engines in areas with anti-pollution plans, ANE reports. Energy minister Segolene Royal announced earlier in the year that drivers scrapping diesel cars to buy an electric vehicle will be entitled to a bonus of up to 10,000 euro (RM42,700).
The TICPE excise tax (domestic duty on consumption of energy products) on diesel is set to go up by two euro cents (nine sen) a litre, drawing 807 million euro (RM3.54 billion) into state coffers in 2015.
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