On 12 October 2017, the City of Paris announced the schedule for the ban on diesel vehicles in the capital. The new Climate Air Territorial Energy Plan will be submitted in November to vote at the Council of Paris, to set the end of the diesel engines in Paris in 2024.
The National Federation of Passenger Transport (FNTV), believes it has finally been heard after three years of discussions with the City of Paris. This culminated in the mobilization of 300 buses on the Paris ring road on 20 December 2016. The FNTV has always believed that the initial objective, to prohibit diesel coaches in the city as early as 2020, was totally unrealistic.
With this new announcement, FNTV is committed to resuming discussions with the City of Paris regarding this 2024 objective, provided that manufacturers can quickly deploy alternative and economically sustainable solutions. The Federation therefore asks to be received by the Paris City Council, as it promised, before the deliberation of the Paris Council in November 2017, to discuss the terms and conditions for implementing the ban on diesel coaches.
What I find fascinating, if the Paris ban goes ahead, is the way in which many in the automotive sector remain in denial, particularly in Germany. Only a few months ago I was told, authoritatively that in three or four years there would be much cleaner diesel vehicles. I said I didn’t think they had three or four years, and, even with a 2024 start date for a ban, this would appear to bear me out. Much rests on the way in which the German automotive sector believe that they control the Federal Government in this area, with Angela Merkel saying quite recently, in a speech, that she would do everything she could to prevent any German cities from instituting a similar ban.
@quinlet
Is Germany’s reason for this because it is the ‘home of the diesel’, with a large infrastructure and vested interest in the fuel?