Baptiste Morin // Photo credit: MATHIEU THOMASSET / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 7:30 a.m., March 18, 2024

Switching to electric cars is a technological challenge, but also a public finance issue.

The taxes that apply to the liter of gasoline or diesel bring in much more to the State than those on electricity.

There should therefore be an attempt to review energy taxation.

And in use, the electric vehicle could therefore prove less profitable than expected.

The transition to electric cars is a real challenge for state finances.

Each year, the TICPE, the tax that applies to gasoline and diesel, brings in around 40 billion euros.

Its electricity equivalent, TICFE, brings in around 7 billion euros, or five to six times less.

To compensate, some imagine an increase in this tax.

The problem is that the price of electricity has already increased very sharply: “Overall, electricity has increased by 70% over ten years. At the same time, fuel oil has also increased, but much less, by 25%,” explains Fabien Choné, energy expert.

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Reset energy taxation

The executive will therefore have to work on a new energy tax system and it will have to achieve two objectives: ensuring unchanged tax revenues for the State and an attractive cost of electricity for motorists.

“It would be completely natural to realign taxes on all energies while progressing much less on electricity than on others,” believes Fabien Choné.

Difficult politically when thermal vehicles will still represent a large part of the French automobile fleet after 2035.