Hi !
First of all: the CNRS does not represent the whole France and/or French people opinion. Thanks to notice this is obvious.

Second: your post is of great interest; but you honestly can't comment without transporting yourself in the France context. We got a fight between those who are in the process of trying hardly to desengage people from using their car at all (and buying a new one), and those who think that we need more roads with greener cars.
My personal opinion is that the less cars we use, the greener we will be, better than driving the same amount of cars, even greener cars. In Paris, just as an example, there is for a few years, a real push towards public transportation (bus, rail, metro, shared cars, etc), which is acclaimed by the Parisians (and the tourists as far as I know).

The CNRS study is to read in this context.

Thanks you for your news.
Chris (from France, but you already guessed).