France introduced the “bonus/malus” feebate program in 2008, making it one of the only countries to implement a fee and rebate system in conjunction. In 2010, the ICCT claimed that the French feebate program is arguably the closest of any existing program to the idealized design features of an optimal feebate program (see report below). France’s system is stepwise, but uses a high number of different gradations between the CO2 g/km equivalents of 21 MPG and 96 MPG (the outer bands of the program), and enjoys complete coverage of the new automobile market in the country.
After implementation of the feebate system in 2008, average fleet CO2 emissions of the new vehicle fleet in France dropped by 6 percent in one year. Between 2008 and 2016, the average CO2 emissions from passenger cars in the French fleet declined from 150 g/km to approximately 110 g/km. Between 2012 and 2017, the market share for plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles in France increased from slightly above 0 percent to nearly 2 percent. However, many of the same trends in average emissions and fleet mix have been present in other EU nations, not all of which have been as active in implanting incentives and disincentives based on vehicle emissions. Heightened CO2 standards in the EU are another factor that has likely caused improvement in France’s fleet mix.