The Government will redo with the weight penalty (tax on the mass in working order) what they did with the CO2 bonus-penalty which has become a penalty-penalty. Almost no one will be able to escape it in a few years. Clément Beaune, Minister Delegate for Transport, reaffirmed on France Info this morning August 21, that there was the desire to create or increase taxes to finance the so-called ecological transition of transport.
These taxes, this could be a contribution to highways, cash cow if any, but also the hardening of the automobile malus. All the more simple for the latter as the argument is already found: heavy vehicles pollute, and heavy vehicles are often expensive. This allows people to be pitted against each other and have the tax accepted because “it concerns his neighbour”.
Except that by lowering the only one, the government will cast its net wider and wider and end up affecting a lot of people. This was the case with the CO2 penalty which now concerns almost all petrol vehicles. Even a Dacia Sandero Stepway with the TCe 90 is malussée.
“We need to invest massively in the ecological transition”, affirms Clément Beaune. “One of the solutions is to ask the most carbon-intensive modes of transport to finance investment in the train”.
For the taxation of tolls, the balance to be found will be to cut back on the profits of the concessionaires without them seeking to regain these margins on the price at the motorway barrier. An equation that could be resolved thanks to the renegotiation soon of certain concessions. They would then be renewed, with higher state tax conditions. In the end, make no mistake about it, it is the user who will pay the bill.
Malus on one side or the other, or even on both sides
For the weight penalty, it is currently set at €10 per kilogram above 1800 kg. You will tell us, 1800 kg is a lot. Certainly, and this is indeed the government’s stratagem to have the tax accepted. According to the economic daily Les Echos, several hypotheses have been considered. The low range would be a trigger from 1.5 tons, the high at 1.7 tons. Obviously the Government is preparing to cut the pear in half by taking a trigger threshold at 1600 kg.
Ah already, it’s not the same soup! We are getting dangerously close to certain generalist family vehicles. There will always be, a priori, compensations depending on the number of children (so as not to penalize large families) but a good number of vehicles will begin to be affected. And we will soon arrive at an apparent contradiction: taxing vehicles by weight when they carry technology to avoid CO2.
For the moment, the weight penalty does not concern electric vehicles, nor PHEVs as long as you can do 50 km in all-electric mode in the city. But “simple” hybrids are concerned. Simple hybrids or “full hybrids” are not very far away, with 1550 to 1600 kg for the Toyota Rav 4, Renault Austral, or even a new Renault Espace which can go up to 1698 kg in 7 places and in E-Tech Hybrid 200 On the other hand, a PHEV of 2 tonnes or more will not be harmed, neither for CO2 nor for weight.
Especially since the 2024 CO2 penalty should see the trigger threshold lower by 5 g/km again. Currently it is triggered from 123 g of CO2/km and should therefore start at 118 g/km. Suffice to say that apart from a good old diesel, it will become difficult to escape one or the other of the penalties. And if we add the electric bonus which will depend on an environmental score, it’s a safe bet that the purchase of a new vehicle will cost more and more in taxes. It is to finance the train we tell you.
🗣 A tax on highway companies? ➡ “We need to invest massively in the ecological transition”, says Clément Beaune, according to whom one of the solutions, “is to ask the most carbon-intensive modes of transport to finance investment in the train”. pic.twitter.com/PzTtij0COK
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) August 21, 2023
Our opinion, by leblogauto.com
This is not really a surprise since it has been announced for years, after a reward/tax system called “bonus-malus” wanted by Mr. Borloo, the State has moved to a malus-malus system for thermals , tightening the screw more and more, and moreover quickly. It is not at all the time of the industry which will take several years to adapt, whether on the engines, or on the vehicles for their weight.
Here, as with the CO2 penalty which initially concerned the most powerful vehicles, generating the approval of those who did not drive with these vehicles, the weight penalty will drop drastically in a few months. If we are at 1600 kg for the trigger, the least vehicle for 5 adults and luggage in a certain comfort will be taxed or not far. And if it’s 1600 kg in 2024, imagine in 2025, 2026…
For the moment, PHEVs and EVs are not affected. But, it will be necessary to find another source of financing when the thermal vehicles will be fewer and fewer, and adapted to these new penalties.