19th Autobody Center San Francisco

France's Fleet Going All-Green By 2040

France's government recently announced that they will no longer sell gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2040, when the country's Ecology Minister Nicolas Hulot unveiled his concept in conjunction with the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

France is joining a worldwide movement to cause the complete extinction of vehicles that run on fossil fuels, something that we applaud here at 19th Autobody Center San Francisco. If we can make a greener world for all of us here in San Francisco, CA and all over the planet, we want to play that role.

France is lining up with other countries like Norway and India to get rid of gas and diesel. As a country that produces a lot of vehicles, France’s new declaration gave some additional momentum to its efforts to fight climate change and city smog by encouraging the use of electric vehicles.

The timing of this announcement is also very significant--one day after Volvo announced that it would phase out the internal combustion engine altogether, and during a visit to Europe by U.S. President Trump. The announcement by Nicolas Hulot, the French environmental minister, was an expression of the European leaders’ determination to follow an environmental agenda despite President Trump’s repudiation of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The plan to gradually phase out gasoline and diesel cars is part of a broader effort by France to seriously limit global warming. In addition, the country will also cease issuing new oil and gas exploration permits this year and stop utilizing coal to produce electricity by 2022, according to Hulot, whose statement was the latest indication that the century-long reign of the internal combustion engine may be slowly coming to its conclusion.

Recently, Paris instituted a partial ban on cars within city limits made before 1997 and now the city of Paris will also ban vehicles made before 1997 from the city center on weekdays, according to Le Monde reports. Additionally, motorcycles made prior to 2000 will also fall under these new regulations.

Minister Hulot's plans also include a more aggressive approach of energy production with his 2040 goals. Vehicles running on electricity and other alternative energy sources, such as hydrogen, are going to need more alternatives forms of energy and a vastly upgraded power grid, which means that France will have to come up with new means of generating electricity very rapidly, with solar power being the most likely option in the short term.

Source: BBC, CNN and NBC