Registration cost in France: the complete guide

This is the most common confusion, and the answer fits in one sentence: the CO2 penalty is not calculated on fiscal horsepower.

The two notions fund two different taxes on the same document:

• Fiscal horsepower (CV) determines the regional tax. It is derived from engine power in kilowatts, by a statutory formula.
• The CO2 penalty is read from a scale based on CO2 emissions in g/km, measured under WLTP. Power plays no part in it.

Two cars with identical power can therefore pay very different penalties, and two cars with the same CO2 can pay very different regional taxes. All they share is appearing on the same registration certificate.

⚠️ One special case keeps the confusion alive: vehicles without EU type-approval — hence without homologated CO2 — are taxed on a scale based on administrative power. That is the only situation in which a penalty is calculated in fiscal horsepower, and it concerns rare vehicles, not a series car bought within the European Union.

For any vehicle first registered in France since 1 January 2021, administrative power is derived from the engine's maximum net power alone, in kilowatts (field P.2 of the registration certificate):

PA = 1.80 × (PM/100)² + 3.87 × (PM/100) + 1.34

Two details change the result, and they are often reported incorrectly:

• The result is rounded up to the next whole unit, by express derogation. A calculation giving 26.71 becomes 27 CV, not 26.
• The switch date is 1 January 2021, not 2020. A vehicle registered new in 2020 still falls under the previous regime, which also involves CO2 alongside power.

A few reference points computed with this formula:

Each regional council votes its own rate. The gap between the cheapest and the most expensive region is €17 per fiscal horsepower unit — €187 on a 11 CV certificate, and close to €1,000 on a 60 CV supercar, for exactly the same car.

In 2026 the CO2 penalty starts at 108 g/km for €50 and is capped at €80,000 from 192 g/km. In between, the scale is defined gram by gram: every additional gram has its own amount, and the progression is anything but linear.

That is what surprises most: between 160 and 170 g/km, ten grams cost €13,610. On a sports car, an option that adds a few grams costs thousands of euros.

Scales alone say very little. Here are three complete calculations, from kilowatt to amount payable.

A 283 kW combustion GT emitting 206 g/km, registered in Île-de-France. Its administrative power is 27 CV (1.80 × 2.83² + 3.87 × 2.83 + 1.34 = 26.71, rounded up to 27). The regional tax comes to 27 × €54.95 = €1,483.65. At 206 g/km the penalty is at its ceiling: €80,000. With €13.76 of fixed fees the total reaches €81,497.41 — of which the penalty accounts for 98.2%.

A 140 kW saloon emitting 150 g/km, registered in Bretagne. Administrative power: 11 CV. Regional tax: 11 × €60 = €660. Penalty: €4,279. Total: €4,952.76.

The same saloon, registered in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Nothing changes about the vehicle; only the regional rate drops from €60 to €43. Regional tax: €473. Total: €4,765.76, i.e. €187 less for the same car.

Two mechanisms reduce the bill, and they act on different components.

• The regional tax is halved for a vehicle ten years old or more. A €660 certificate falls to €330.
• The penalty on an imported used vehicle is reduced by an age allowance that grows with age: it is computed on the scale of the year of first registration, then an allowance applies per band of elapsed months. A model imported several years after its launch therefore does not pay the new-car penalty.

⚠️ A used vehicle already registered in France does not trigger the CO2 penalty again. It is due on first French registration: buying second-hand on the domestic market does not expose you to it.

An electric vehicle pays no CO2 penalty — it emits nothing at the tailpipe — and is exempt from the weight penalty.

That leaves the regional tax, and this is where the situation has changed: most regions removed their clean-vehicle exemption in 2025. An electric car therefore now pays the full rate in almost every metropolitan region, with Hauts-de-France keeping a 50% reduction.

⚠️ What we do not calculate: the administrative power of an electric vehicle follows a separate formula, amended on 1 March 2026. Our calculator does not model it yet and returns no value for these vehicles, rather than showing an approximate one. A wrong amount costs more than a missing one.

On Luxydrive you have nothing to re-enter: the registration cost is calculated and shown directly on every listing, from the vehicle's actual characteristics — power, homologated emissions, kerb mass, year of first registration.

And it does not stop at France. Every listing shows the cost in six countries — Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Belgium and its three regions, France, Germany, the Netherlands — with, for each, exactly what the amount covers. On a cross-border purchase, that is the difference between a displayed price and a real budget.