30-YEAR-OLD CLASSICS EXEMPT FROM FRENCH LEZS
Four French cities spare cars more than 30 years old from emissions zones
Classics more than 30 years old will be exempt from low-emission zones (LEZS) in France, which previously excluded older vehicles from the country’s largest cities.
Paris, Reims, Rouen and Nice all had LEZS come in to affect in the last nine months, and until now older vehicles were prohibited from the areas entirely from 8am8pm Monday-friday. Now, vehicles that are more than 30 years old that are registered as ‘collector vehicles’ will be able to apply for a special sticker to exempt them from the zone – a more technical solution will replace the stickers in the long term. The French government has not yet outlined how vehicles from outside of France can apply for the exemption though the stickers are handed out by France’s Crit’air authority – which has had processes in place to sell emissions stickers to travelling Brits for many years. LEZS are expected to spread further throughout France’s cities in the coming years with Lyon, Toulouse, Strasbourg and Greater Paris next in line.
Minister for Transport, Jean Baptiste Djebbari, said: ‘We have always been pioneers of the automobile. France is the cradle of the Renault 5, of front-wheeldrive, of the Alpine A110, of the DS and the 2CV. Our collector vehicles constitute an invaluable industrial, technical, cultural and social heritage. It’s a heritage that brings together thousands of businesses, museums, clubs and enthusiasts. We must protect this heritage and see that vintage vehicles continue to amaze the French in our cities.’
Fédération Française des Véhicules d’époque, one of the main advocates of the exemption, justified the policy on the basis that only 0.5 per cent of vehicles in cities were collector cars more than 30 years old and drive 15 times fewer miles than average.
France joins Germany in exempting such cars from emission zones, consistent with the Fédération International des Véhicules Anciens (FIVA)’S definition of a historic vehicle and at odds with London’s ULEZ, which only exempts cars that are more than 40 years old.
CCW asked Transport for London (TFL) what it made of this difference; TFL said only that it followed the excise duty exemption set by The Treasury.
FIVA’S legislation commission chairman, Lars Genild, said: ‘We promote FIVA’S definition of historic vehicles but FIVA has always fully accepted the need and wish for individual national definitions often based upon the possible achievement and adjustment to national legislation.’ ❚ ffve.org