General description

Last update: October 2015
Title of the measure:
FRA19 Automobile bonus-malus (“bonus écologique”)
General description
The bonus-malus scheme (called bonus écologique), based on the CO2 emissions per km, supports the
purchase of vehicles with low CO2 emissions by giving bonus (and by penalizing the purchase of vehicles
with high emissions by giving a malus).
Since its implementation in 2008, this mechanism has been successful: it has supported the decrease of
the average emissions levels for the new vehicles registered in France which was 149 gCO2/km in 2007
then, 113 gCO2/km in 2014.
Nota Bene: before the implementation of this measure, the observed average decrease was 1.6 gCO2/km;
since then, 4.1 gCO2/km per year has been observed (see Figure 1).
Figure 1 Average emissions of new domestic vehicles sold in France (in CO2 per km)
(source: SOeS1)
The bonus-malus scheme relies on two mechanisms2:
- a "bonus" for the purchase of a new car with low CO2 emission and the scrap of an old one
(registered before 2001);
- a “malus” for the purchase of new cars with high CO2 emissions.
Type of purchase/rent
Electric car emitting less than 20 gCO2/km
Hybrid car emitting between 21 and 60 gCO2/km
Special grant for low income households:
-New or second-hand vehicle emitting between 61 and 110
gCO2/km and conforming with the Euro 6
1
New
Total
ecological
Bonus in €
public
bonus in €
grant in €
(superbonus)
6,300
3,700*
10,000
4,000
2,500*
6,500
500
the statistic department of the French Ministry for Energy and Sustainable Development (Service de
l’Observation Et des Statistiques)
2
They were 3 mechanisms before 2015 because the car scrapping led to an additional bonus (called
“superbonus”)
Last update: October 2015
-Second-hand electric or hybrid vehicle emitting less than 20
gCO2/km
*For vehicles rent for more than 2 years or bought before the 1st July 2015, the bonus is only of €200
Table 1 Public grants for the purchase of new vehicles from January 2015
Nota Bene: From December 2008 until the end of 2009, the bonus was €1,000 if the new clean vehicle
emitted less than 160g CO2/km and if the old car was older than 10 years old. The “superbonus” stopped
in 2010 but the scrapping bonus was maintained under new conditions: 700€ until the June, 30th 2010
(500€ after). The “superbonus” was set up again in 2011 (in 2012, the bonus was 200€ under the
condition to get rid of an old vehicle older than 15 years) then stopped in 2015 since the scrapping of an
old car is requested to be granted of a bonus.
Impact evaluation
The distribution of new cars purchases per CO2 emission category highlights the trend in low emissions
cars purchases (less than 120 gCO2/km in average for new vehicles in 2014).
Figure 2 Distribution of new vehicles purchases per category
(source: Evolutions du marché, caractéristiques environnementales et techniques, ADEME 2015)
Figure 3 Average CO2 emission per km for new vehicles sold in France
(source: Evolutions du marché, caractéristiques environnementales et techniques, ADEME 2015)
Last update: October 2015
According to the SceGES3 tool from the French General Direction for Energy and Climate (DGEC), the
energy saved and potentially saved would have been 0.1 Mtoe in 2012, and would be 1.1 Mtoe in 2016
and 2.2 Mtoe in 2020.
Since the final energy consumption of the transport sector was 45.2 Mtoe4 in 2012, this measure would
have led to 0.2% of energy savings.
Nota Bene: this evaluation has to be taken into consideration carefully since other phenomenon such as
the economic crisis and the increase in oil prices in the 2000’s may have contributed to this result.
Measure Impact Level
 low
 medium
 high
Definition of impact:
Low: energy savings < 0.1% of the overall transport sector consumption
Medium: between 0.1 and 0.5%
High: > 0.5%
Interaction of measures
FRA16 Car labelling in CO2 emissions
FRA13 Grants for LPG and CNG vehicles
FRA 14 Grants for electric vehicles
FRA 8 Subsidies for cars replacement
Historical data
2007: announcement of the national objective to reduce the average emissions of the global French cars
park to 176 gCO2/km to 130 gCO2/km within 2020 (Grenelle de l’Environment)
2008: first implementation of the scheme
Dec. 2008 – Dec. 2009: request of an old car scraping to benefit the bonus
2009: the EU regulation n°443/2009 enforces Member States to reduce the average CO2 emission of new
vehicles 130 gCO2/km within 2015 and 95 gCO2/km within 2020.
2010: stop of the bonus scheme
2011: setting up of the bonus coupled to the old car scraping
2015: bonus for electric and hybrid car purchases and additional bonus for old car scraping
References
Administrative and regulatory acts
Décret n° 2015-361 du 30 mars 2015 modifiant le décret n° 2014-1672 du 30 décembre 2014 instituant
une aide à l'acquisition et à la location des véhicules peu polluants
3
SceGES comes from « GHG emissions scenarios elaborating» (Scénarisation des Emissions de Gaz à
Effet de Serre)
4
Bilan énergétique de la France pour 2014, juillet 2015, Service de l’Observation Et des Statistiques
Last update: October 2015
Décret n° 2014-1672 du 30 décembre 2014 instituant une aide à l'acquisition et à la location des véhicules
peu polluants
Regulation (EC) N°510/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 May 2011 setting
emission performance standards for new light commercial vehicles as part of the Union's integrated
approach to reduce CO2 emissions from light-duty vehicles (Règlement n°510/2011 du parlement
européen et du conseil du 11 mai 2011 établissant des normes de performance en matière d'émissions
pour les véhicules utilitaires légers neufs dans le cadre de l'approche intégrée de l'Union visant à réduire
les émissions de CO2 des véhicules légers)
Regulation (EC) N°443/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 setting
emission performance standards for new passenger cars as part of the Community’s integrated approach
to reduce CO2 emissions from light-duty vehicles (Règlement n°443/2009 du parlement européen et du
conseil du 23 avril 2009 établissant des normes de performance en matière d’émissions pour les voitures
particulières neuves dans le cadre de l’approche intégrée de la Communauté visant à réduire les émissions
de CO2 des véhicules légers)
Décret n° 2007-1873 du 26 décembre 2007 instituant une aide à l'acquisition des véhicules propres
Article 1011 bis du Code Général des Impôts (“General Tax Code”)
For further information
The specific section of the website of the Ministry for Sustainable Development
www.developpement-durable.gouv.fr/Bonus-Malus-2015.html