Car registration cost in France for 2026, line by line

How the total is built

A French registration bill is not negotiable and does not depend on who files it. It is made of five lines, Y1 to Y5, each defined in the French tax code on goods and services, and you will find them printed along the bottom of the certificate. One detail matters for the last cent: lines Y1 to Y4 are added together and rounded to the nearest euro, then the Y5 delivery fee is added with its cents. That is how the State’s own simulator works, and how the calculator at the top of this page works too.

Y1, the regional tax

This is usually the biggest line. It equals the rate per “cheval fiscal” (fiscal horsepower, a tax unit rather than an engine output) set by the region where you live, multiplied by the administrative horsepower in box P.6. Regions may charge up to €60 per CV; 7 of them sit at that cap on 20 October 2026, while the lowest rate, €30, applies in Mayotte. In Île-de-France, the Paris region, a surcharge of €14 per CV for the transport authority Île-de-France Mobilités has applied since 1 March 2026, outside the cap, under article L421-54-1 of the same code. Regional figures match the official fiscal horsepower price simulator; our table of regional rates adds each start date, flagged “not verified” where the regional resolution itself could not be read.

Three adjustments apply. The amount is cut by 50 % when the vehicle was first registered, anywhere in the world, 10 years or more before the application. Motorbikes pay half whatever their age, and the two reductions do not stack. Mopeds pay nothing. The Paris surcharge follows the same reductions. And when ownership does not change (new address, duplicate, adding or removing a spouse) there is no regional tax at all.

Y2, the tax on commercial vehicles

Only goods and passenger transport vehicles pay it, banded by gross vehicle weight: €34 up to 3,500 kg, €127 up to 6,000 kg, €189 up to 11,000 kg and €285 above. Passenger cars, motorhomes and classic cars are not liable. See vans and commercial vehicles for the categories.

Y3, the maluses, charged once

A new car, or an imported one registered in France for the first time, pays the CO₂ malus from the scale of the year it was first registered. In 2026 that scale starts at €50 at 108 g/km and reaches €80,000 from 192 g/km, under article L421-62. The weight malus is added from 1,500 kg, at €10 per kilo in the first band and up to €30 per kilo above 2,000 kg, as the official page on the weight malus explains. Together they never exceed €80,000. Electric and hydrogen cars are exempt from both. A used car already registered in France never pays a malus, even if it would have paid one new. Full scales: CO₂ malus and weight malus.

Y4 and Y5, the fixed lines

Nearly every new certificate carries €11 of fixed tax, the exception being a change of address. Posting the secure document to your home is billed separately at €2.76, so the two lines add €13.76 between them. Both are confirmed on page F19211 of service-public.gouv.fr, the government information site.

Worked examples on 20 October 2026

Every row comes from the same engine as the calculator, using the date the rates were read as the application date. The first four rows isolate the effect of region on one car; the fifth shows age; the rest show the maluses and the fuel type.

The new car in Grand Est stays below the weight threshold, so only its €983 CO₂ malus is added to the regional tax. At 1,650 kg and 150 g/km, the second new car pays €4,279 of CO₂ malus and €1,510 of weight malus, which dwarfs its regional tax. The two electric cars are identical: the €118 gap comes from the reduction granted in Hauts-de-France and from the different rates.

For your own used-car purchase, the short calculator below needs only the region, the horsepower and the year of first registration.

Registration of a used car

Region of residence

Auvergne-Rhône-AlpesBourgogne-Franche-ComtéBrittanyCentre-Val de LoireCorsicaGrand EstHauts-de-FranceÎle-de-FranceNormandyNouvelle-AquitaineOccitaniePays de la LoireProvence-Alpes-Côte d’AzurGuadeloupeFrench GuianaRéunionMartiniqueMayotte

Fiscal horsepower

CV

Year first registered

Change of keeper · Grand Est

€193.76

Y1, half rate (over 10 years)	€180.00
Y4 + Y5	€13.76
Fine if the one-month deadline is missed	€135.00

Age counted from 1 January of the year entered: the full calculation is precise to the month.

Full calculation, box by box →

When the bill is lower

• The vehicle is 10 years old or more. The regional tax is halved: the same 5 CV car drops from €344.75 to €172.38 of regional tax in Île-de-France. Age runs to the day from the date in box B; the ten-year rule guide shows what a few weeks’ wait can save.
• It is a motorbike or scooter. Half rate from day one, with horsepower worked out from engine size. See motorbike and scooter.
• The change follows a marriage, civil partnership (PACS), divorce or a spouse’s death. No regional tax: you pay €13.76. A car inherited by a child, or received as a gift, is taxed like a purchase; inherited or gifted cars works it out.
• You move house. The first 3 address changes are free; later ones cost the delivery fee alone. See address change and duplicate.
• The car is electric and you live in Hauts-de-France. That region has taken 50 % off its own tax since 1 April 2026. Everywhere else an electric car pays the full rate and only escapes the maluses. See electric and hybrid cars.
• A family with 3 or more children, or a disability card holder. The maluses drop by 20 g/km and 200 kg per child, refunded afterwards, or vanish for holders of the disability mobility card (CMI invalidité). The calculator options cover both.

Classic cars get no regional discount of their own: only the age rule applies, as the classic car page explains. A car bought outside France still owes the maluses, reduced by an age-based depreciation; importing from the EU and importing from outside the EU also cover the “quitus fiscal” tax clearance and customs steps.

What changes in 2027

As of 20 October 2026, no region has voted a rise for 2027, but three changes are already law. The Île-de-France Mobilités surcharge falls to €12 per CV on 1 January 2027, unless the authority votes up to €13: with an unchanged regional rate, our 5 CV car would pay €334.75 of regional tax instead of €344.75. The CO₂ malus starts at 103 g/km and caps at €90,000, so the new car at 130 g/km would pay €1,504 rather than €983. The weight scale is unchanged, but mild hybrids lose their allowance. The 2027 changes page helps decide whether to register before or after 1 January.

Free application, optional service fees

Applying on the ANTS website is free: you only pay the taxes. The form is on the ANTS registration portal and payment by card comes at the end. A garage or an approved professional can file it for you for a service fee, which is added to the taxes and does not go to the State. The taxes vs service fees page shows how to separate the two on an invoice.

Checking an amount you have already paid

Take the certificate and find three things: the first registration date in box B, the fiscal horsepower in box P.6, and lines Y.1 to Y.6 at the bottom, where Y.6 is the total. Then redo Y1 yourself: your region’s rate on the application date, times P.6, halved if the vehicle was at least 10 years old that day. If the gap is more than a few cents, check the address you declared first, then the application date, since a rate may have changed between purchase and filing. The guide to reading a French registration certificate explains every box, and the region comparison shows what the same car would have cost elsewhere. When planning a purchase, the car purchase budget adds registration to the other costs, and the fiscal horsepower calculator finds the CV figure from kilowatts before you hold the certificate.

The rules used, their legal articles and the points that could not be verified are listed on the method and sources page. This site is independent: it has no link with the French administration or with any registration service.