Paris City Hall wants internal combustion engines off its roads, and the city wants it to happen sooner rather than later.

Officials in Paris have announced plans to remove internal combustion engines from the city completely, as soon as 2030. The bold move was announced by Mayor Anne Hidalgo yesterday.

Hidalgo has previously announced plans to ban all diesel cars from the city by 2024, in an effort to reduce air pollution in the city. Paris is hosting the Summer Olympics that year.

Unlike the bans proposed by federal governments, including the one proposed by French President Emmanuel Macron, this ban will affect existing cars and trucks. Only electric vehicles will be allowed into the French capital if the legislation is formally approved.

The city has already gone to great lengths to reduce pollution inside its limits. Any vehicle that is older than 1997 is already banned from operating on city streets between 8 am and 8 pm, Monday to Friday. Diesels registered before the year 2000 are banned completely. All vehicles in Paris must have a window sticker that indicates the emissions band they fall into.

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Mayor Hidalgo has also taken criticism for adding hundreds of miles of cycling paths that take roads away from cars, as well as banning traffic from the Champs-Elysees Avenue once a month. To further help encourage Parisians to use alternate transport, she introduced a fleet of rental bicycles and electric cars to encourage residents to leave their internal combustion car at home.

The measures still need to be formally approved before they can take effect. City officials also said that they plan to meet with automakers over the next few months in order to bring them onboard with the target.

City Hall refused to call it a ban, and said that it was not an attack on cars. Just an effort to reduce greenhouse gases and improve air quality in the city.

"The aim is no way formulated as a ‘ban’ by 2030, but as a trajectory which seems both credible and sustainable," said a statement released by City Hall.

City officials hope that expanding public transit, as well as increased cycling and the rise of electric vehicles, will make the transition a more natural one.

HybridCars.com