France to Invest Heavily on Electric Cars

France has unveiled plans to invest 1.5 billion Euros on the infrastructure for the 2 million hybrid and electric cars that it want on roads by 2020 and with this announcement, “The battle of the electric car” was launched. France is aiming to be a world leader in the energy and car industry, as reported by the Jean-Louis Borloo, the ecology minister of France, while presenting his government’s strategy to reduce CO2 emissions with the help of eco-friendly cars. He also said that no player can take the risk alone but it works if all actors take it at the same time, after being flanked by the top French car makers PSA Peugeot Citroen and Renault. The project will cover everything from industrial research, producing clean cars, making batteries and building a nation-wide network of battery-charging stations.

Earlier to this announcement, Borloo had said that France plans to invest more than 7 billion Euros i.e. around 10 billion dollars for development of freight transport by rail to reduce road traffic. These schemes are said to be part of “Green plan” for France by President Nicholas Sarkozy and it aims to reduce green house gas emissions responsible for global warming. To bring this into effect, he also announced a new carbon tax on individuals and businesses to encourage consumers to cut down on gas, oil and coal and this is supposed to come into force next year.

Currently, out of 30 million French cars on roads, only a few thousands are electric or hybrid and so major investment would be required to build two million of them. 900 million dollars out of 2.2 billion earmarked is hoped to come from a state loan due for launch next year. The money though would be mostly used for infrastructure, but buying of cars and subsidies for both buyers and makers of clean vehicles will also be funded with it. According to the plan, around a million battery-charging stations will be built by the year 2015, 90 percent of them would be in private homes but also in roadside sites and car parks. All new apartments having parking lots will have to include charging stations by 2012 so that the network grows to 4 million points by 2020, which is equivalent to two per vehicle.