£25 congestion charge for larger cars in London

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, today announced plans to start charging cars with higher CO2 emissions £25 a day to drive into central London’s Congestion Zone, where the charge is currently £8 per day.

Its being presented as a part of a scheme to tackle global warming but the cynics would say it’s just a chance for the old school socialist mayor to hit the well off or middle class with a new tax for choosing to drive a vehicle with an engine bigger than a washing machine’s.

The new charge will be imposed on vehicles that are classed as VED(Vehicle Excise Duty) Band G. There are seven bands, A-G, worked out on the amount of CO2 in grammes emitted per kiliometre. Drivers of larger model Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Range Rover and similar cars will find their vehicles over 226 g/km, making them Band G.

Cars in Bands A and B, up to 120 g/km CO2 will be exempt from the new charge although the Mayor’s own figures show that currently only two per cent of cars entering the congestion zone are classed in Bands A-B. Either a lot of small cars will be sold this autumn or the Mayor will be raking in a fortune.

If you own a car in London or are thinking of renting one you can find out what band it falls into by inputting your vehicle model/make on the Department of Transport’s Carfueldata website. Vehicles in VED Bands C-F will still have to pay the daily £8 congestion charge while the new CO2 Charge will come into effect on 27 October 2008, unless that is if Londoners decide to give Ken Livingstone his marching orders in this year’s London Mayoral election.

By Chris | Permalink

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