Paris plans to ban petrol and diesel cars from 2030
Paris will ban all petrol cars from the city centre in 2030, ahead of a planned nationwide ban on the sale of internal-combustion vehicles in 2040.
The decision follows earlier plans to ban diesel vehicles from Paris in 2024, and is part of a wider campaign to cut CO2 levels in the French capital.
Anne Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, has already driven the creation of car-free zones in the downtown area, car-free days, and fines for anyone who enters the city in a car built before 1997 since being elected in 2014.
She has also pushed for better cycling and pedestrian infrastructure in the city, in an attempt to get people out of their cars.
“This is about planning for the long-term with a strategy that will reduce greenhouse gases,” Christophe Najdovksi, an official responsible for transport policy in Paris, told Reuters.
Along with its planned ban on fossil fuel-powered cars, France will try to steer buyers toward electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles by cutting incentives for diesel buyers next year. Last year, pure EVs made up just 1.1 per cent of sales in France – above the European average (0.7 per cent) but well behind Norway, where generous incentives mean 13.4 per cent of all cars sold last year were electric.
(Above: Oxford is planning to ban petrol and diesel passenger cars in 2020)
The plans come amid a storm of planned bans and new rules surrounding internal-combustion vehicles in European cities. Last week, Oxford City Council, UK, said it will prevent petrol- and diesel-powered passenger cars from entering certain areas from 2020, ahead of a total ban on internal-combustion vehicles in 2035.
Just this week, the Dutch government announced plans to ban the sale of internal combustion vehicles in 2030, while Norway is set to do the same in 2025. China is discussing a timeline for the end of pure petrol and diesel sales, too, in a move that has made GM CEO, Mary Barra, unhappy.
Angela Merkel also supports the idea of stopping the sale of fossil-fuelled cars, but hasn’t put a timeline on something similar for Germany.
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