France may yet invoke policy which bans the sale of new diesel cars in the country

There is continuing speculation, fuelled by comments by the country’s Environment Minister Segolene Royal,  that France may yet invoke policy which bans the sale of new diesel cars in the country. Criminal investigations regarding Renault’s alleged use of ‘cheat devices’ similar to those used by VW (and reported by us here…) are ongoing the outcome of this inquiry may determine the fate of DERV cars in France.

We see some major obstacles to implementing such a radical policy; Mme Royal will probably not be in post after the elections next year, and, more importantly, Renault, and Peugeot/Citroen are major producers and exporters of diesel cars and their unions run rings around French governments. On the other hand, Renault is way ahead of its German rivals when it comes to electric cars; the new Zoe has a range of 250miles and costs under €20,000.00 and Renault has access to Nissan’s EV technology.

Whether this policy happens sooner or later, we must assume that it will happen. Diesel (and petrol) engined cars will be banned from sale in Norway by 2025 and many European cities are already planning to ban them from city centres.

Great news for people living in cities, bad news for residual values on second had diesels…

Read about it here.