France announcing “clean vehicle” program

16 September 2003

The government of France announced a “clean vehicle” program to stimulate development of transportation technologies with low greenhouse gas and low pollutant emission. The government will provide additional funding of €40 million over a 5 year period. The program will be coordinated by the Ministry of Environment, in cooperation with Ministries of Research, Transport and Industry.

Please log in to view the full version of this article (subscription required).

Combined with existing government programs and with contributions from the industry, the national clean vehicle research spendings are estimated at €155 million over the period 2003-2004. The priority research areas are:

• Engines and fuels, including combustion and aftertreatment (catalysts) research (€11M)
• On-vehicle storage of electric power (€7.6M)
• Urban transport of goods technologies, including freight trains and urban trucks (€7.5M)
• Fuel cells (€5.8M)
• Noise reduction (€4.8M)
• Reduction of energy consumption for air-conditioning (€1.8M)

The program also includes a number of measures aimed at reducing emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases from existing vehicle fleets, with a focus on vehicles operated in urban areas.

In 2001 in France, road transport was responsible for 24% of the greenhouse gas emissions, 50% of NOx emissions, and 25% of fine particulate emissions, according to Mrs. Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, the Minister of Environment.

Source: French Ministry of Environment