Anyone who has bought a car in France will know that they have one month from the date of purchase to register the vehicle in their name via the ANTS website.

READ ALSO What you should know when buying a car in France

When you register for your vehicle’s carte grise, you will be asked for a fee. How much that costs depends on the type of car you have bought, how green it is, and where you live.

The total cost is made up of the following:

• Regional tax;
• Tax for the development of vocational training in transport;
• Tax on polluting vehicles;
• Fixed tax of €11;
• Fee for the delivery of the registration certificate.

Each of France’s 13 regions sets their own regional tax rate every year – which this year range from €55 in Brittany (€4 higher than in 2022) to as little as €27 in Corsica. Six regions offer 100 percent regional tax discounts for ‘clean’ electric vehicles, while another two cut their fees by 50 percent. 

You can find a table of rates here

To calculate how much you have you pay, you need to know the cheval fiscal of your vehicle. No, that’s not a horse who is also a tax expert, it is “taxable horsepower” of your vehicle. You can find this on your registration certificate, where it is known as cheval vapeur or CV. 

This unit of measurement classifies cars according to their power for tax purposes. Each category of car in circulation is assigned a specific rate.

To calculate your pollution tax, multiply the rate of 1 fiscal horsepower of the region where you live by the fiscal power of the vehicle.

Alternatively, use this simulator

Your vehicle’s CV is also important for calculating the pollution tax. More powerful ICE cars are very recognised as the most polluting – and this tax is intended to motivate buyers to consider 100 percent electric, hybrid, or smaller vehicles.

The good news is that, if you are buying a car from a dealership, they should deal with all this on your behalf as part of the sale process. In theory, you can also ask any dealership to help you out – they may charge an additional fee on top.

You can estimate the total cost of your carte grise using the government’s online simulator here.

Other costs

Running a car in France involves several other costs beyond the obvious insurance and fuel costs.

Once your car is more than four years old, it needs regular vehicle safety checks known as contôle technique (roughly equivalent to an MOT in the UK)

READ ALSO How to save money on your contrôle technique

As well as toll fees if you want to drive on autoroutes, you will also need a Crit’Air sticker if you want to drive in the larger towns and cities. This sticker – which assigns a number to your vehicle based on how polluting it is – only costs around €5, but not having one can net you a larger fine.

How the Crit’Air vehicle sticker system works

And of course you will need to obey the rules of the road in order to avoid fines, points on your driving licence or both.

These are the offences that can cost you points on your driving licence in France