France will ban all conventional gasoline or diesel-powered motor vehicles by the year 2040, Minister of Ecological and Solidary Transition Nicolas Hulot announced Thursday afternoon.
Hulot unveiled the plan for France to outlaw all conventional combustion engine cars over the next 23 years during a press conference outlining President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to dramatically reduce carbon emissions in his country by the middle of the century.
France, said Hulot, was now on its way towards “the end of the sale of petrol or vehicles between now and 2040.”
In addition, France will prohibit any “new project to use petrol, gas, or coal,” by 2040, said Hulot.
In the meantime, while gas and diesel cars will remain legal, the government will subsidize the purchase of electric cars.
"The government will offer each French person a bonus to replace their diesel car dating before 1997 or petrol from before 2001 by a new or second-hand vehicle."
A former journalist and prominent environmentalist, Hulot ran in the Europe Ecologie-Les Verts presidential primary in 2011. In May, Hulot was tapped to serve in President Macron’s cabinet, heading up the Ministry of Ecological and Solidary Transition.