In 2008 France unilaterally commenced a national policy
of CO2-emissions penalties* and bonuses** on the purchase of new cars.
what it means for you
You the customers of the French tax-free short-term auto leasing programs do not suffer said penalties nor,
unfortunately, receive said bonuses.
A big question, however, for the various French auto manufacturers operating a tax-free leasing program has become whether or to what degree to
continue offering tax-free lease vehicles which under the new law are penalized. The tendency of course is for them to go green.
For now that means going diesel. The manufacturers will continue to offer a few larger,
penalized vehicles to satisfy customers who simply need such; but nearly eliminated are the gasoline models, and there are fewer
automatics.
See our FAQ page at left to learn more about these modern, super fuel-efficient, economical, turbo charged diesel engines, many of
which power their vehicles to nearly 70 miles per US gallon (3.36 liters/100 km) on the highway!
This diesel technology is almost surely coming to your neighborhood soon — so consider your French lease the ultimate test drive.
But BEWARE: A diesel nozzle is considerably wider than either a leaded gasoline nozzle or the even smaller unleaded gasoline nozzle
and indeed will not fit into either such tank.
Consequently a gasoline nozzle will fit into a diesel tank.
Therefore, be careful not to put gasoline into a diesel tank!!!
Even a liter of gasoline added to the tank of a modern diesel car can cause irreversible
damage to the injection pump and other components due to its relatively low lubricity. In some cases, the diesel car so abused has to be scrapped because the cost
of repairs exceeds its value. (Diesel in a gasoline engine — while creating large amounts of smoke — does not normally cause permanent damage if it is drained
once the mistake is realized. Similarly, older diesels using completely mechanical injection can tolerate some gasoline,
which has historically been used to "thin" diesel fuel in winter.)
A green pump holds unleaded gasoline or else diesel, a blue leaded gasoline. Diesel pumps are sometimes colored black, sometimes green.
Diesel pumps are chiefly signified linguistically, either with the very word diesel or with one of the
equivalents: gas-oil, gaz-oil, gasolio, gasóleo, dieselolie, mazot, motorina, or nafta.
* said penalties
** said bonuses
The scheme will pay for itself, the France Ministry of Ecology
said, with the levy on polluters used to pay out bonuses to the rest.
Emissions limits will be toughened every two years, by five grams each time, to encourage manufacturers to keep developing cleaner cars.
Plans for taxes on polluting vehicles were approved by President Nicolas Sarkozy following a four-month forum on the environment
that brought together the government, industry and the green lobby. Sarkozy came out in favor of a national "carbon tax" on global-warming pollutants
and a European levy on imports from countries outside the Kyoto Protocol. He also endorsed a raft of measures to slash greenhouse-gas emissions,
cut pollution and foster biodiversity, ranging from a freeze on the building of new highways and airports, to a commitment to try to slash pesticide use by half.
See the related Economist article:
Europe's Car Industry: Collision Course.
Via the
Agence de l'Environnement
et de la Maîtrise de l'Energie you can research the emissions produced by a particular vehicle.
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