Every new year has a new tax twist. In a few weeks, the government is due to present a road map for next year, and thermal vehicles should be additionally fined.

Indeed, according to the newspaper Les Echos, the government should again lower the threshold for triggering the environmental malus. We would pass that way from a threshold of 123 in 2023 to 118 g/km CO₂. The list of thermal cars that will avoid a fine will be further reduced, and some models will even be entitled to a double fine, because at the same time, as before, as Les Echos writes, the weight penalty will also increase from the original threshold of 1.8 to 1.6 tonnes.

Thus, several thermal SUVs, including some bestsellers such as the Peugeot 3008 and Renault Austral, have to pay the price.

The penalty kick will soon be incomplete

For fans of sports cars, German six-cylinder engines or beautiful Italian V8s, in 2024 the score should be even higher. Indeed, as Bruno Le Maire, the economy minister, announced last May, the fine will no longer be capped.

Therefore, the ceiling of €50,000 in fines that applies this year should disappear and certain models will apply a penalty fully proportional to their CO emissions₂. Therefore, we could approach 100,000 euros In some cases.

This, of course, is enough to significantly expand the market for used luxury and prestige cars, as well as for certain “tax optimization” solutions with the restoration of foreign license plates.

Companies are also in the government’s sights

And no one can be spared from this new turn of the screw. Really, The government also intends to increase the tax on the fleet of companies, including those who still buy diesel models, even if they are increasingly rare in the manufacturer’s catalog. The government wants to speed up the greening of car fleets and “encourage” companies to change their strategy with the help of increased taxes on CO emissions₂as well as the age of vehicles.

All these measures should bring more money to the coffers because these new taxes can bring half a billion euros to the state. At the same time, the environmental bonus reserved for electric cars is to be strengthened next year, in particular by excluding models that have “too high CO2₂“, in other words, produced outside of European borders.

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