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Exotic Cars Could Get Hit With New Penalties in France

Big Penalties for High-Polluters

Want to buy a gas-guzzling exotic in France? Well, you can certainly do so, but you might be paying a bit more than you think. A draft budget law that’s currently in France’s parliament would double the penalty the consumers pay based on carbon-dioxide emissions, according to Bloomberg.

In some cases, these penalties could reach as high as €50,000 ($59,000) in 2022. In this new plan vehicles that emit more than 225 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer will be taxed at a rate of €40,000 ($47,255) in 2021, and that number will increase in 2022.

So what cars could get hit? To name just a few, the Lamborghini Urus and Aventador, Porsche 718 Spyder and 911, Rolls-Royce Ghost and Cullinan, Bentley Flying Spur, several Mercedes-AMG and G-Class models, and the Ferrari Portofino and 812 Superfast. Plenty of others could face the same fate, too.

“This would be relatively bad news for supercars, luxury, and exclusive vehicles, and a show stopper for foreign imported cars,” Jato Dynamics analyst Felipe Munoz said, adding that high-volume SUVs could be under threat in France from the levy.

At the time of this writing, the law has not gone through parliament. However, if it does it could add significant pressure to the auto industry. This pressure comes from the European Union’s 2030 Climate Target Plan. This plan seeks to reduce CO2 emissions by 55 percent from the levels that were recorded in the 90s.