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Fréjus Tunnel that connects France and Italy to close this weekend
The tunnel will close for 12 hours and not the 56 hours originally announced
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TotalEnergies opens service station for electric vehicles in Paris
It is the first of its kind in the capital and has ultra-fast charging
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Conductors on French public transport will soon be able to check your address
Move is part of anti-fraud plans to prevent people from giving false information during fines including on SNCF trains
French car thefts ‘among highest’
French-made cars head top 10 most stolen models
EIGHT French cars are among the top 10 most-stolen models as they are the easiest to steal and sell on.
The French-made Ford Fiesta, manufactured in France, came second in a study of crime data by drivers’ group 40 Million d’Automobilistes, coming just behind the German-made Smart Fortwo.
Every year about 110,000 vehicles are stolen in France and the study showed that last year 12% of them were Smarts and 11% Fiestas. This is the second year the Smart has headed the list.
Using crime data from motoring specialists Experveo, the list continued with the Peugeot 406, with 5.81% of thefts, Renault Twingo II (3.92%) and Twingo (3.82%); Renault Mégane II and Citröen Xsara Picasso 3.29%, Renault Clio 1 (3.27%), Peugeot 308 SW (3.22%).
Pierre Chasseray, of 40 Million d’Automobilistes, blamed modern computerised technology for the high rate of thefts – especially in the case of the high-tech Smart Fortwo model.
“Digital piracy represents three-quarters of thefts today and for Fortwo, all it takes is a piece of plastic to gain access to the electronic ignition – Smart has to tighten up its security,” he said.
Luxury cars and 4x4s, which had previously heading the thefts list, have improved their security – but are instead now making up a large part of the most-vandalised models. Although the most-vandalised list is led by the French Citroën C3 Pluriel, which made up 7% of cars damaged in this way.