Image copyright Reuters Image caption Hybrid and electric cars, like this Renault, make up about 5% of the French car market

France is set to ban the sale of any car that uses petrol or diesel fuel by 2040, in what the ecology minister called a "revolution".

Nicolas Hulot announced the planned ban on fossil fuel vehicles as part of a renewed commitment to the Paris climate deal.

He said France planned to become carbon neutral by 2050.

Hybrid cars make up about 3.5% of the French market, with pure electric vehicles accounting for just 1.2%.

It is not yet clear what will happen to existing fossil fuel vehicles still in use in 2040.

Mr Hulot, a veteran environmental campaigner, was appointed by new French President Emmanuel Macron. Mr Macron has openly criticised US environmental policy, urging Donald Trump to "make our planet great again".

President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement in June was explicitly named as a factor in France's new vehicle plan.

"France has decided to become carbon neutral by 2050 following the US decision," Mr Hulot said, adding that the government would have to make investments to meet that target.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption French President Emmanuel Macron criticised Mr Trump in June

Poorer households would receive financial assistance to replace older, more polluting vehicles with cleaner ones, he said.

Earlier this week, car manufacturer Volvo said all of its new car models would be at least partly electric from 2019, an announcement referenced by Mr Hulot.

He said he believes French car manufacturers - including brands such as Peugeot-Citroen and Renault - would meet the challenge, although he acknowledged it would be difficult. Renault's "Zoe" electric vehicle range is one of the most popular in Europe.

However, traditional fossil fuel vehicles account for about 95% of the European market.

Other targets set in the French environmental plan include ending coal power plants by 2022, reducing nuclear power to 50% of total output by 2025, and ending the issuance of new oil and gas exploration licences.

Several French cities struggle with high levels of air pollution, including Paris, which endured several days of peak pollution in March.

The capital has implemented a range of measures to cut down on cars, but air pollution is also a problem in picturesque mountain regions.

Last month, a woman took the French state to court over what she said was a failure to protect her health from the effects of air pollution in Paris.

Norway, which is the leader in the use of electric cars in Europe, wants to move to electric-only vehicles by 2025, as does the Netherlands. Both Germany and India have proposed similar measures with a target of 2030.</s>France has big, bold plans for the auto sector.

The new French government wants to end sales of gas and diesel-powered vehicles by 2040 as it fights global warming.

After that date, automakers will only be allowed to sell cars that run on electricity or other cleaner power. Hybrid cars will also be permitted.

Nicolas Hulot, the government official in charge of France's "ecological transition," said the goal would help the nation's automakers "innovate and become market leaders."

"A revolution in the mobility of everyday life awaits us," he said.

The government outlined a range of initiatives to help reach its goal, including support for the development of alternative fuels such as electricity and hydrogen. It's also planning to finance new infrastructure for charging electric cars.

The government also promised a cash-for-clunkers program to pay people who give up their old, polluting vehicles and trade up to a cleaner vehicle. It did not provide details on how the scrappage program would work.

French President Emmanuel Macron has been clear about his plans to promote policies to protect the environment. In a televised speech in June, he condemned President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and called on people to "make our planet great again."

He offered refuge to American scientists, engineers and citizens who were disappointed by Trump's move.

"They will find in France a second homeland. I call on them, come and work here with us, to work together on concrete solutions for our climate," he said.

Related: Why gas-powered cars aren't going away

France's move to phase out vehicles that rely solely on the combustion engine comes one day after automaker Volvo announced that every car it makes from 2019 onward will have an electric motor.

Volvo is the first traditional carmaker to fully embrace electric and hybrid production.

French drivers bought just over two million cars last year. The share of cars powered by electric, hybrid and alternative fuels is small -- about 4% -- but growing fast. Sales of those vehicles were up 25% in the first quarter of 2017.

Several factors are pushing the auto industry towards electric motors, including tougher environmental regulations and the desire for self-driving cars, which will need more electrical juice for all their computing needs.

But eliminating the gas engine altogether will be difficult.

A key reason is profitability. Tesla (TSLA) has yet to report an annual profit. Traditional automakers are making billions of dollars selling millions of gasoline-powered cars each. No one has yet figured out a way to make a profit selling electric-only vehicles.

-- Karolina Rozwadowski in Paris and Chris Isidore in New York contributed to this report.</s>Paris: France plans to end the sale of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles by 2040 in a bid to become a carbon-neutral nation, energy minister Nicolas Hulot said, effectively promoting electric cars.

Presenting the country’s “Climate Plan” in Paris on Thursday, Hulot said France will offer tax incentives to replace diesel autos that are more than 20 years old and gasoline vehicles made before 2001. The government will also end oil and gas exploration on French territory, eliminate coal-fired power plants by 2022 and encourage home owners to produce their own energy.

“The target is a tough one,” Hulot, a former journalist and environmental activist, said. “But France wants to become the No. 1 green economy.”

President Emmanuel Macron’s government unveiled plans to eliminate net carbon emissions by 2050 as leaders from the Group of 20 nations, including all the world’s biggest polluters, gather in Hamburg. US President Donald Trump will meet Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese President Xi Jinping, who criticized his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord last month.

On Wednesday, Volvo Car Group became the first major manufacturer to say it will start phasing out vehicles powered solely by fossil fuels, joining a parade of manufacturers shifting toward electric cars. The Swedish auto brand says it plans to offer only hybrid or full-electric motors on every new model launched in 2019 or later, and it expects to have five fully electric vehicles in its lineup by 2021. That means Volvo will make its last full-gasoline or diesel car in about 2025.

Though electric cars have been around since the 1800s and have gotten a lot of attention in the past half-decade or so, they’re still just a fraction of the overall market as drivers balk at high prices and limited driving ranges. Battery-powered autos made up about 1% of sales in the US, Europe and China last year. They will outsell fossil-fuel powered vehicles within two decades as the cost of batteries plunge, according to a Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecast.

Shares of French automaker PSA Group rose as much as 2.4% after Hulot’s speech, while Renault SA gained 1.9%, making them the day’s best performers on the Bloomberg 500 Autos Index.

Sales of Peugeot, Citroen and DS cars made by PSA should benefit from tax incentives to scrap older autos, a company spokeswoman said by phone, adding that “switching to another energy source isn’t painless.” PSA plans to offer an electric version of 80% of its models by 2023 but isn’t going fully electric anytime soon.

“Nicolas Hulot only speaks for France, but we are a global company and most of the world still runs on combustion engines,” she said. Bloomberg</s>Mr. Hulot’s statement was the latest sign that the century-long reign of the internal combustion engine may be slowly coming to an end.

On Wednesday, Volvo said that all of its new models beginning in 2019 would be either battery-powered cars or hybrids that combined electric motors with diesel or gasoline engines.

The company, based in Sweden, said it will not introduce any new designs powered solely by conventional internal combustion engines — a first for a major carmaker. Mr. Hulot referred to Volvo’s announcement during his remarks in Paris on Thursday.

There was no immediate reaction to the government’s statement from France’s two major carmakers, Renault and the PSA Group, which makes Peugeot and Citroën cars.

Renault began selling battery-powered cars in 2011, and was among the first major carmakers to do so.

While electric cars still only amount to a sliver of the market, sales have been growing fast. Renault sold 17,000 of its battery powered Zoe compact cars in the first six months of 2017, almost as many as in all of 2016.

France faced some criticism that its plan was not ambitious enough. Norway plans to sell only electric cars starting in 2025, and India plans to do so in 2030.

Since cars usually last about 15 years, France’s target means that gasoline and diesel cars would be on the road until 2055. That is too long to meet France’s own climate change goals, said Greg Archer, director of clean vehicles at Transport & Environment, an advocacy group in Brussels.

But Mr. Archer added that France’s move “is absolutely the right direction to be taking.”

Such an expression of government resolve can prompt companies to devote more resources to developing electric vehicles, and encourage investors to put money into clean transportation start-ups. France’s move could also put pressure on Germany and other European countries to promote electric vehicles.

Mr. Archer said, though, that it was essential for France to follow up with incentives and regulations that encouraged the use of electric cars. Mr. Hulot gave no specifics about how the government planned to meet its target.

The German government originally planned to put one million electric vehicles on the country’s roads by 2020, but has admitted it will fall far short of that goal. The government was slow to offer financial incentives and build public charging stations.

“It’s great to have a vision,” Mr. Archer said. “We have to now see the policies put in place to deliver on that vision.”</s>Say au revoir to fossil fuels, Gallic drivers. France intends to stop the sale of all gasoline- and diesel-powered cars by the year 2040 as part of a series of measures designed to help the country reach its ambitious climate change-battling goals by mid-century, the nation's environmental minister declared on Thursday.

"Transportation is now the largest sector responsible for emissions of greenhouse gases in France," the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development, and Energy said in a statement announcing the wide-ranging measures. "That is why we are setting the target for ending the sale of gasoline and diesel cars in 2040, encouraging car manufacturers to innovate."

Environmental minister Nicolas Hulot said that while he acknowledged it would create challenges for the country's automotive industry, the carmakers are working on ways to deliver on the ambitious goal, The Independent reports.

As part of the move to bar gas and diesel cars from the streets, less-well-off French residents will receive funds to help them trade in their fossil fuel vehicles for electric cars, Hulot said, according to The Independent.

Hulot's announcement means France joins a growing league of nations that have announced plans to leave fossil fuels behind in upcoming decades. The Netherlands and Norway alike have stated a goal of no longer selling gas-powered cars by 2025, while Germany is working on plans to require all new cars that hit the road by 2030 be zero-emissions vehicles; India has also expressed an interest in only selling electric cars by that year.

Parts of France have already taken steps to address the problems caused by fossil fuel-powered cars. Last year, Paris began banning all cars built before 1997 from the city during the work week in an attempt to mitigate the higher levels of pollutants released by such vehicles; it's also begun barring cars from certain streets at select times. But obviously, jumping from a five-day-a-week ban on old vehicles to declaring an end to internal-combustion cars overall is quite a jump in terms of ambitiousness. As they say in France, qui vivra verra.</s>France has big, bold plans for the auto sector.

The new French government wants to end sales of gas and diesel-powered vehicles by 2040 as it fights global warming.

After that date, automakers will only be allowed to sell cars that run on electricity or other cleaner power. Hybrid cars will also be permitted.

Nicolas Hulot, the government official in charge of France's "ecological transition," said the goal would help the nation's automakers "innovate and become market leaders."

"A revolution in the mobility of everyday life awaits us," he said.

The government outlined a range of initiatives to help reach its goal, including support for the development of alternative fuels such as electricity and hydrogen. It's also planning to finance new infrastructure for charging electric cars.

The government also promised a cash-for-clunkers program to pay people who give up their old, polluting vehicles and trade up to a cleaner vehicle. It did not provide details on how the scrappage program would work.

French President Emmanuel Macron has been clear about his plans to promote policies to protect the environment. In a televised speech in June, he condemned President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and called on people to "make our planet great again."

He offered refuge to American scientists, engineers and citizens who were disappointed by Trump's move.

"They will find in France a second homeland. I call on them, come and work here with us, to work together on concrete solutions for our climate," he said.

Related: Why gas-powered cars aren't going away

France's move to phase out vehicles that rely solely on the combustion engine comes one day after automaker Volvo announced that every car it makes from 2019 onward will have an electric motor.

Volvo is the first traditional carmaker to fully embrace electric and hybrid production.

French drivers bought just over two million cars last year. The share of cars powered by electric, hybrid and alternative fuels is small -- about 4% -- but growing fast. Sales of those vehicles were up 25% in the first quarter of 2017.

Several factors are pushing the auto industry towards electric motors, including tougher environmental regulations and the desire for self-driving cars, which will need more electrical juice for all their computing needs.

But eliminating the gas engine altogether will be difficult.

A key reason is profitability. Tesla (TSLA) has yet to report an annual profit. Traditional automakers are making billions of dollars selling millions of gasoline-powered cars each. No one has yet figured out a way to make a profit selling electric-only vehicles.

-- Karolina Rozwadowski in Paris and Chris Isidore in New York contributed to this report.</s>Franceplans to outlaw all petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040, its new environment minister, Nicolas Hulot, has announced.

It will also ban any "new project to use petrol, gas or coal", as well as shale oil, by that date.

The radical measures were unveiled at a press conference this morning as part of French president Emmanuel Macron's plans to make France a carbon neutral country by 2050 and "make the planet great again".

Mr Hulot, a former star wildlife TV presenter, announced "the end of the sale of petrol or vehicles between now and 2040."</s>France is planning to ban the sale of any car that uses petrol or diesel fuel by 2040 . The planned ban on fossil fuel vehicles is part of a renewed commitment to the Paris climate deal, reports BBC. From the report:</s>France to end sales of petrol, diesel vehicles by 2040

France will end sales of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040 as part of an ambitious plan to meet its targets under the Paris climate accord, new Ecology Minister Nicolas Hulot announced Thursday. “We are announcing an end to the sale of petrol and diesel cars by 2040,” Hulot said, acknowledging that the target would […]

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Also, Like us on facebook</s>The French Government have announced that, by 2040, the nation will ban all petrol and diesel fuelled vehicles.

The new French Environment minister, Nicolas Hulot, made the bold statement earlier today, also adding that France pledges to be carbon neutral ten years later, by 2050.

The news comes on the same day that Swedish automotive giants Volvo have committed to stop producing solely petrol and diesel powered cars as soon as 2019, focusing its production towards hybrid vehicles, that run of both traditional fuels but also electricity.

Of course, this progressive move by the French government will be a shot in the arm for environmental campaigners, but will also have a significant impact on the motoring industry, and the estimated 38 million car owners already living in France.

However, Hulot suggested that the government had already conceived projects that ensure the country “can fulfill that promise”, including poorer households being offered a premium to allow them to swap their traditional fuelled vehicle for one that is better for the environment.

Today’s announcement is part of a five year plan that will see France encourage green energy use, and fulfil the nation’s commitment to the Paris Agreement, something US president Donald Trump has reneged on in June this year.

“We want to demonstrate that fighting against climate change can lead to an improvement of French people’s daily lives” Hulot stated at a press conference. France has joined the netherland and norway, who want to see the end of petrol and diesel cars as soon as 2025, along with german and India, who’ve committed to similar plan by 2030.

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French ecology minister Nicolas Hulot announces France is to ban the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040.