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Macron wants France to become Europe's top clean car producer

by Reuters
Tuesday, 26 May 2020 15:45 GMT

FILE PHOTO: Free2Move Paris electric vehicles by Groupe PSA are displayed outside Paris city hall as the French car maker launches its free-floating car-sharing service in Paris, France, November 29, 2018. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes

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President wants France to raise output to more than 1 million electric and hybrid cars per year over the next five years

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PARIS, May 26 (Reuters) - President Emmanuel Macron said he aims to make France the top producer of clean vehicles in Europe by getting carmakers to repatriate production from abroad and develop new models on French soil.

"We need a motivational goal: make France Europe's top producer of clean vehicles by bringing output to more than one million electric and hybrid cars per year over the next five years," Macron told a news conference.

To reach that aim, Macron said France would increase the state bonus for consumers buying electric cars to 7,000 euros ($7,690) from 6,000 euros.

No car model currently produced in France should be manufactured in other countries, he added.

The government would not sign off on a planned 5 billion euros state loan for Renault until management and unions had concluded talks over the carmaker's French workforce and plants in France, Macron said.

Overall, government measures to support the car industry would amount to some 8 billion euros, he said following a visit to a Valeo car parts factory in northern France.

(Reporting by Michel Rose, Gilles Guillaume, Sudip Kar-Gupta and Benoit Van Overstraeten Writing by Matthieu Protard Editing by David Goodman)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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