London activates the £10 Emissions Surcharge fee for old petrol and diesel vehicles

As of Monday, old petrol and diesel vehicles that want to drive in central London will have to meet minimum emission standards or they will have to pay an extra daily charge of £10, in addition to the £11.5 Congestion Charge which was introduced in 2003.

The T-Charge is applicable to pre-Euro 4 vehicles which are usually the ones registered before 2006 and will be applied all of central London to the south of King’s Cross station, to the east of Hyde Park, west of the Tower of London and north of Elephant and Castle.

Transport for London advised Londoners who registered their vehicle before 2008 to check if they are liable for the extra charge.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said: “As mayor, I am determined to take urgent action to help clean up London’s lethal air. The shameful scale of the public health crisis London faces, with thousands of premature deaths caused by air pollution, must be addressed”.

“Today marks a major milestone in this journey with the introduction of the T-charge to encourage motorists to ditch polluting, harmful vehicles.

“London now has the world’s toughest emissions standard with older, more polluting vehicles paying up to £21.50 a day to drive in the centre of the city. This is the time to stand up and join the battle to clear the toxic air we are forced to breathe”. 

The T-Charge will be applied in the Congestion Charge zone and is aimed, among others, to prepare Londoners for the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) that will be introduced in April 2019. 

In an interview Sky News on Monday morning, the Mayor revealed that the T-Charge would cost Londoners approximately £7 million, which he called a “price worth paying”.

The revenue from the Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) and the pollution fees will be then leveraged towards clean air initiatives.

The initiative has already received criticism from industry representatives claiming that the actual number of affected cars will be marginal.

Mike Hawes, the Chief Executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers, said:

“Investment made by the industry into new diesel and petrol technologies has resulted in the most recent cars being unaffected by this new charge in London and, indeed, exempt from any other charges across the UK”.

“This new T-charge will affect a very small number of older vehicles so the impact on air quality will be marginal whereas bigger improvements could be achieved by policies which incentivise the uptake of the latest, lowest emission vehicles”.

However, Sadiq Khan has responded that T-charge is only part of a series of measures that have been introduced, and are yet to be introduced in the future.

ULEZ will be an area where all cars, motorcycles, vans, minibuses, buses, coaches and lorries will have to meet exhaust emission standards, or they will have to pay an extra daily fee. 

Learn more about the T-Charge fee here. 

Learn more about the future Ultra-Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) here.