For many years, London has had a congestion charge that applies to all drivers who want to enter the city center aboard vehicles emitting more than 75 g/km of CO2.
Even though the current congestion charge is £11.50 a day, there are some who believe diesel cars should be charged an additional £10.
London mayor Boris Johnson wants the new Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to be introduced by 2020 and plans to lobby the government to increase vehicle excise duty on diesel cars in order to encourage motorists to move to cleaner vehicles.
The charge will not apply to diesel vehicles meeting the Euro 6 emissions standard, which is mandatory for all new cars being sold from January 1, 2015. Petrol cars registered before 2006 will also have to pay the charge.
According to a spokesman for the mayor, the plans will be subject to a full consultation and any levy on cars not meeting the Euro 6 emissions standard would be “likely to be a similar amount to the congestion charge.”
“Over recent years the Euro diesel engine standards have not delivered the emission savings expected, yet governments have been incentivising us to buy them. This has left us with a generation of dirty diesels,” the mayor’s environment adviser, Matthew Pencharz, was quoted as saying on BBC News.
However, AA president Edmund King argued that the vehicles with the most impact on air quality were buses, taxis and trucks. “Very few cars enter central London so these measures will have more effect on the growing numbers of small businesses and service vehicles on whom London’s economy relies. They will have to plan ahead to change their vehicles if they are to stay in business,” King said.
About 10 million cars in Britain are powered by diesel engines, roughly a third of the total fleet.
By Dan Mihalascu
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