However, buyers of relatively low emission vehicles will be disproportionately harder hit as the government lowered the minimum limit for the tax.
Today, the tax penalty starts at 127g/km (which means an extra €50 on the carte grise cost) but in 2018 the €50 penalty starts at 121g/km – and a car rated ‘clean’ at 126g/km this year will pay €140 in 2018.
The maximum penalty for the heaviest emitting vehicles only rises from €10,000 to €10,500 but now comes in at 185g/km instead of 191g/km. A car rated 185g/km this year pays €8,460 and next year will pay €10,500.
Secondhand cars face a different tax, the taxe CO₂. This is paid at €2 per gram on cars rated over 200g/km and €4/g above 250g/km. It is included in the selling garage’s bill if it organises the new carte grise.
Buyers of electric cars will still get the €6,000 grant for purchase but the €1,000 grant for buyers of hybrids is stopped – as is the grant of up to €200 for buying an electric bicycle.
Anyone eyeing a 184g/km- rated Porsche Panamera 4S will save more than €2,000 by buying it this year... although it does cost €118,000. A cheaper 129g/km-rated Citroën DS3 Cabrio THP costs €70 in tax this year but €253 in 2018.
The subsidy for people scrapping an old diesel to buy a less polluting or electric car will no longer be only for low-income families. Open to all next year, it offers €2,500 for a new electric car, €1,000 for a secondhand one, and €1,000 for a hybrid or rated Crit’air 1 or 2.
Toulouse is the latest city to apply Crit’air pollution rules. It joins Paris and suburbs, Lyon, Lille, Grenoble and Strasbourg. Costing €4.18, order a sticker at certificat-air.gouv.fr It is not obligatory, but non-use may lead to a fine in these cities.