As part of the Retrofit National Action Plan, French ministers Agnès Pannier Runacher (Minister for Energy Transition), Roland Lescure (Minister Delegate for Industry) and Clément Beaune (Minister Delegate for Transport) have announced the publication of three decrees to clarify and simplify regulations in France.

The three decrees published will enable more widespread deployment of retrofit solutions, as part of the retrofit national action plan announced on 26 April. The decrees were issued following technical work with experts in the field and a public consultation that ran from 25 May to 16 June 2023. Their aim is to facilitate approval procedures at the request of the industry.

To go into details, it is now possible to retrofit special vehicles (breakdown vehicles, motor homes, wheelchair-accessible vehicles, mobile cranes, etc.). The changes also specify the information that the seller must provide to the buyer on the average greenhouse gas emissions avoided over a 10-year period by converting the vehicle to electric power. These changes extend the manufacturer’s technical opinion exemption for vehicles over 5 years old, already in effect for electric retrofits, to retrofits involving a change of engine or energy source, such as CNG or LPG retrofits, hybrid or rechargeable hybrid retrofits, or hydrogen retrofits.

Lastly, for heavy commercial vehicles, the installation of an efficient pollution control system meeting Euro VI emission levels will make it possible to qualify the vehicle for a Crit’Air* 2 certificate.

*The French Crit’Air air quality certificate is a secure sticker issued to show a vehicle’s compliance with European emission standards. It ranges from 0 to 5 (zero being associated with green vehicles (electric or hydrogen)).

Do you want to learn more about retrofit in France? Then our latest article on the subject should interest you.

Article written by Laurent Meillaud and translated by Logan King