Motorists who want to buy a new vehicle will have to pay attention to its carbon footprint. From January 1st, 2020, the ecological penalty will increase strongly.
If you want to change your vehicle soon, you will have to (if it is not already) pay close attention to the CO2 emissions it generates. From January 1st, 2020, the Environmental Penalty will indeed increase.
The increase in this eco-tax, which sanctions vehicles whose carbon dioxide emissions are too high, was confirmed Sunday 29th September 2019 by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire.
Invited LCI Grand Jury, RTL Le Figaro , he confirmed the information revealed by Les Echos that this rise in the penalty car would be very strong.
“Yes, we will increase the auto malus, but for a very simple reason: we can not want to accelerate the energy transition and want to keep penalties that are still relatively modest vehicles that emit a lot of CO2. “
The auto malus, what is it?
The ecological penalty is “a tax due at the first registration of a polluting vehicle” recalls Bercy on its website . The stated objective: to encourage motorists to opt for the purchase of less polluting vehicles and in passing to finance the ecological transition and the conversion premium.
The penalty, which applies to all new vehicles, is calculated based on the amount of CO2 emitted per kilometre. This year, it concerned vehicles emitting more than 117 grams of CO2 / km, a threshold already revised upwards at the beginning of the year.
From 35 euros to 117 grams of CO2 / km, the penalty was up to 10 500 euros for a vehicle emitting more than 191 grams of CO2 / km.
On the Car Labelling website of the Ademe, it is possible to know the number of grams of CO2 emissions per kilometre emitted by the vehicles.
Find the full scale of the ecological malus here
What are the new criteria?
To justify this new rise, Bruno Le Maire said Sunday that the government took into account new European criteria.
Since September 1, 2018, the new vehicle homologation standards have been modified to “get closer to real driving conditions,” remind our colleagues at Les Echos. The new Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedures (WLTP) have higher CO2 emissions than the previous New European Driving Cycle (NDEC), which is estimated at 24.8%, according to a government estimate.
The new ecological malus grid will, therefore, be adapted to these new standards and hardened passage.
“Deterring people from buying polluting vehicles”
The government now wants to go from “117 g of CO2 to 110 g for the triggering of this penalty” and increase it for the most polluting vehicles. Minister Bruno Le Maire cited Sunday as an example:
“For a vehicle that emits 140 g of CO2 per kilometer, we will pass the penalty from 690 to 1901 euros. It’s a way of discouraging people from buying polluting vehicles.”
According to car specialist Caradisiac, the scale will begin with a tax of 50 euros (instead of 35 currently) to 110 g of CO2 / km (instead of 117), with a value each gram, up to 12 500 euros for 201 g / km and more.
A first increase will be applied from January 1st, 2020, before a new June 1st, 2020, if they are confirmed by the vote of the finance law 2020.
