The European Community of Alsace (CEA) will vote on a tax on heavy goods vehicles crossing its main motorway, to reduce the number of trucks wanting to avoid an equivalent tax in Germany, its president Frédéric Bierry announced on Wednesday.
This ecotax project, which has been under study for years, “will be submitted to the political vote of the community,” declared the LR elected official during a lunch. “If the decision were made, it means that at the end of 2026, beginning of 2027, it could be implemented,” he added, then mentioning an entry into force on January 1, 2027.
The president did not give the amount envisaged for this tax, but according to an impact study carried out by the Deloitte firm for the CEA (resulting from the merger in 2021 of the departmental councils of Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin), it could be 15 cents per kilometer.
64 million euros
Applied mainly on the A35 motorway, which crosses Alsace from north to south, this tax would bring in 64 million euros per year, half of which would come from transit traffic, according to this study.
The precise terms of the tax, its amount, as well as possible compensation for local transporters, will then be discussed for a year with economic stakeholders, promised Frédéric Bierry. “Our challenge is public health, public safety, fluidity,” he justified.
Many truckers use the A35 motorway, which crosses Alsace from north to south, to avoid the “LKW-Maut”, a heavy goods vehicle ecotax in force on the other side of the border, in Germany since 2005, and the amount of which increased significantly last December.
According to CEA figures, the move has led to an 18% increase in the number of heavy goods vehicles on the A35 by 2024. The vote on whether to implement the tax is expected to take place on October 21.