The French government will offer a new tax credit for environmentally-friendly investments and make cash incentives for buying new electric cars conditional on them being made in Europe, President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday.
The new tax credit, due to be included in next year's budget, is expected to generate private investments totalling 20 billion euros ($22 billion) by 2030 and create tens of thousands of jobs.
The measure would cover companies' capital expenditures on 25-40% of their investments in wind and solar power facilities, heat pumps and batteries, presidency officials said.
Macron's government wants to fire up investment in environmentally friendly technologies so that France can compete with U.S. companies boosted by the Biden administration's $430 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which includes major tax subsidies to cut carbon emission, boost domestic production and manufacturing.
Macron also said that a green industry bill to be presented next Tuesday would include plans to ramp up investment in training and halve the time it takes to set up a new factory in France to nine months or less.
"This financing framework should help us compete with the Americans' IRA," Macron said as he outlined measures to reverse France's long-term industrial decline.
For consumers, an existing cash incentive of up to 5,000 euros for buyers of new electric cars would be made conditional on their producers meeting tough low-carbon standards, effectively shutting out non-European carmakers.
"We're going to support batteries and vehicles made in Europe because their carbon footprint is good, we're not going to use French taxpayers' money to boost non-European industry," Macron said.
($1 = 0.9084 euros)
