The French Environment Minister made the statement after Volvo announced plans to build only electric and hybrid vehicles starting in 2019. The statement has received strong support from environmentalists. Experts in the automobile industry say that by setting a deadline of 20 years to fulfill its target, the French government delivered a strong message urging automobile manufacturers to change to electric cars. The Minister said that the French will in the meantime be offered financial incentives to scrap their polluting vehicles for clean alternatives. The move is part of President Emmanuel Macron’s pledge to make France carbon neutral by 2050. 

France is by no means the only country aiming to ban combustion-powered cars in some form. Germany, which is home to a number of automobile giants, wants to do away with 100 per cent combustion-powered vehicles by 2050. Germany wants to put one million electric vehicles on the road by 2020. The Netherlands and Norway wish to do so by 2025. Norway — where electric cars topped the sales charts for the first time last month — aims to end sales of petrol and diesel cars by 2025.

A recent study published in the scientific journal Nature shows a minimum of 38,000 people a year die early due to the failure of diesel vehicles to meet official limits in real driving conditions.