Increasing the maximum speed from 130 km/h to 110 km/h on the motorway is no longer on the agenda in France. For everyone anyway. On the other hand, the government invites large companies to encourage their employees to reduce their speed.
Limiting the maximum speed on French motorways from 130 km/h to 110 km/h regularly comes up on the table. This was in particular one of Anne Hidalgo’s campaign promises during the 2022 presidential campaign. Conversely, Emmanuel Macron has always shown his opposition to this measure… during his first term in any case.
Since then, this controversial measure has been mentioned on several occasions, in particular in as part of the government’s Energy Sobriety Plan at the end of 2022. When the authorities demanded that civil servants reduce their speed on the highway at the wheel of their company cars, the question of extending the measure to the entire population arose.
But in order to avoid a new wave of protest, Elisabeth Borne rejected this idea. Well, not exactly. If there is still no question of legislating on the subject, the reduction of speed could well be invited in the professional world.
Encourage employees of large companies to drive more slowly
Indeed, the government invites large French companies, in particular those listed on the CAC40 and SBF120, to invite their employees to drive more slowly in their company car. This will go through a social dialogue “in order to anchor sobriety over time”. At the same time, as the President of the Republic likes to say, companies will have to “set quantified targets for reducing energy consumption” And “have these objectives validated by high internal authorities” as their board of directors. Afterwards, these commitments must be highlighted on the Internet via dedicated portals as Companies are committed.
Incidentally, the government recalls that lowering the speed by 20 km/h on the highway allows reduce CO2 emissions and fuel consumption by 20%. On the other hand, this only represents a loss of three minutes on a 50 km journey. Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister for Energy Transition, recalls the issues: achieve a 40% reduction in the country’s energy consumption by 2050.
