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President leads drive for cleaner vehicles |
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Thursday, 09 October 2008 |
President Sarkozy has announced a €400 million fund to back research into clean transport.
Speaking at the Salon mondiale de l’automobile in Paris the President said “France is to undertake a vast project of research and support for the development of vehicles giving off as little carbon emissions as possible. These may be entirely electric or hybrid and rechargeable. We are making available 400 million euros of public money over the next four years entirely dedicated to research and development into low carbon emission vehicles. These funds are already available within the extra billion euros allocated to research through the Grenelle de l’environnement, the pôles de compétitivité and the Agence de l’environnement et de maitrise de l’énergie (Ademe)”.
The president's announcement follows the earlier statement by the Secretary of state for industry and consumer affairs Luc Chatel, who said, ”the government wishes to commit itself to a policy aimed at carbon free vehicles.” He went to say “this policy is linked to the Grenelle de l’environnement and the motor industry. If we want to have a motor industry that lasts into the future in our country we must help it to make the right choices”. At the same time Renault and the EDF have announced a joint scheme to promote electric vehicles on a large scale by setting up a network of electrical charging points throughout France to be operational by the year 2011. In a press release the two companies said that “they aimed to create a large-scale Zero emission transport system in France”. The French government holds a 25% share stake in Renault and has made it clear that it will use it to influence business decisions in the future. During his visit to the Renault factory at Sandouvile (Seine-Maritime) the President declared that “the site will not close” and that “its future is guaranteed”.
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