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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

France will ask auto makers to fund new car trade-in payments

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PARIS: France will ask carmakers to help fund an expanded trade-in programme to get older, polluting cars off the road with incentives for new ones, the French finance minister told daily Le Parisien.


The existing government-funded scrappage scheme, which mainly targets old diesel cars, is already oversubscribed.


The widening of the incentive is partly funded by a hardening of the tax on polluting vehicles adopted last week, which should raise 40 million euros (£35.5 million) to reach a total of 610 million next year to finance contributions for the purchase of more environment-friendly cars.


The minister’s agenda says he will hold meetings with Environment Minister Francois de Rugy and carmakers, such as Renault and PSA, to “discuss measures aimed at speeding up the vehicle fleet’s ecological transition.”


“With Francois de Rugy we will ask carmakers to contribute to the conversion premium,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told Le Parisien in an interview, adding that the incentive should be more efficient and reach more French people.


The level of carmakers’ contribution to the wider scheme would have to be discussed with them, he said.


Newspaper Les Echos earlier this week said French carmakers were already discussing between them the implementation at their expense of a bonus for the conversion of old vehicles. The precise outlines remained under discussion.


There has been a global backlash against diesel-engine cars since leading German carmaker Volkswagen admitted in 2015 to cheating US exhaust tests. The scandal has boosted investment in electric vehicles and incentives for green cars. — Reuters


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