As the years go by, the thresholds for the ecological penalty decrease and the state’s revenue increases. Some vehicles have even become a golden goose at this level.
The ecological penalty is the nightmare of any sports car enthusiast. In France, with a few exceptions, any 100% thermal and slightly hairy model is penalized with a penalty of 60,000 euros.
This tax brings in a lot of money for the state, but it does not necessarily come from the vehicles that we think of first. Indeed, the first “victims” are not the owners of Ferraris or Lamborghinis, but rather professionals and buyers of more conventional cars.
The penalty brings in a lot of money for the State
As a reminder, and as every year since the introduction of this scale, on 1is January 2024, the ecological penalty has seen its threshold lowered to 118 g/km of CO2 for a tax of up to 60,000 euros. And this tightening has done good to government revenues linked to this tax, since they have almost doubled during the first half of 2024. With the lowering of the threshold, more models are affected by the penalty, but many are also more severely affected. Thus, a simple Peugeot 3008 petrol which was penalized with a small penalty equivalent to a hundred euros in 2023, saw its tax multiplied by three or four with the new scale.
According to figures published by NGC-Data, in the first half of the year, the volume of vehicles subject to the ecological penalty increased by only 2.6% compared to the same period last year. An increase that is not necessarily so significant in the sense that manufacturers have adapted, with the multiplication of hybrid models (micro-hybrid, full hybrid or PHEV). But for their part, tax revenues have exploded compared to the same period in 2024, with 737,274,664 euros compared to 379,823,713 euros, an increase of 94.1% in one year.
Only one sports car in the Top 20
And there are obviously models that bring in more than others. The goose that lays the golden eggs of the State is not the Ferrari, Lamborghini and other Audi RS 3 or BMW M2, but rather the utilities and their MPV derivatives. Big, heavy and still powered by diesel engines for the most part, they occupy the Top 5 of the ranking. Thus, the 4,364 Renault Trafic sold in France in the first half of 2024 brought in more than 163 million euros in revenue to the State on its penalty alone! The Ford Tourneo Custom also takes part in the party since it occupies second position with 90 million euros brought in. The Mercedes Class V, Toyota Proace and Volkswagen Transporter Combi complete this Top 5.
The sixth model is, or rather, the “cause” of the creation of the ecological penalty. It is the Porsche 911which brought in around 19 million euros to the State via its penalty, based on 322 models registered since the start of the year in France.
It is also the only sports model in this ranking, because the rest of the Top 20 is made up of more classic models, such as the Dacia Sandero which brought in 6.7 million euros or the Citroën C3 which brought in an additional 5.8 million euros.
Source: www.autoplus.fr
