Executive Summary

How can low-emission vehicles contribute to the French energy transition and the national low-carbon strategy? What are the benefits for the economy, and under what conditions? How can France and its territories improve air quality?

In order to discuss these questions, this project brought together industry and civil society. Representing the automotive industry, Renault, Valeo, Michelin, Saft and Eurobat were able to provide their valuable expertise on technological aspects. The French Aluminium Association, European Aluminium and the chemical group Lanxess provided input on materials. On the energy and infrastructure side, data evaluation was provided by ERDF, Air Liquide and ABB. Civil society was represented by the FGMM CFDT (General Federation of Mines and Metallurgy), the Nicolas Hulot Foundation and the European Climate Foundation.

The work has helped quantify the likely impact on the French economy of the transition towards more energy-efficient light-duty vehicles, principally fuelled by electricity from renewable energies and by hydrogen. Following many months of analysis and exchange, the project showed that the transition towards low-carbon mobility helps generate sizeable economic co-benefits, creating jobs in technological innovation, while reducing French dependence on oil. In order for these beneficial effects to become reality, political instruments and certain conditions are necessary. They require close collaboration between the government, local authorities, industry and civil society.

Although it is difficult to precisely quantify the resulting economic impact, we have limited the margin of uncertainty by using a conservative set of data, which has been tested according to multiple economic scenarios.

Data on the cost and potential of each low-carbon automotive technology are based on a dataset originally produced by the European Automobile Manufacture