In its National Low-Carbon Strategy, Stratégie Nationale Bas Carbone, France has set top priority on low-carbon transportation. Despite successful experiments, the generalization of electric lines has been slow. Right now, oil-powered vehicles are set to be phased out by 2040. However, it is not clear that such is the case for bus and train lines, nor why the deadline should not be set earlier for those collective transport lines, which should logically precede, not follow, individual transports towards decarbonation. So, although headed in the right direction, Climate Scorecard encourages the French government to set clear deadlines to reach 100% low-carbon power in train and bus lines by 2030 and all rail and road transportation by 2040.

In order to keep electric vehicle emissions as low as possible, it is imperative to keep an affordable, low-carbon electric power mix as is already the case in France and Sweden nowadays, as shown here:

Estimated CO2 emissions of electric vehicles depending on electric mix emissions. Source: Transport & Environment.