London Mayor Boris Johnson and Transport for London (TfL) is set to review the London Congestion Charge following complaints that the current system for exemptions to the charge is unfair.
Following a challenge to the Mayor of London, lead by carmaker Volvo, the Mayor agreed to a review of the Congestion Charge alternative fuel exemptions that, Volvo believes is unfairly biased against hybrid cars over other low-emitting vehicles.
The current system bases exemption to charge on technology rather than on carbon emission ratings, which means that in some cases high-polluting hybrids such as the Lexus RX 450h at 148g/km CO2 still qualify to dodge the fee.
In his response to the campaign, The Mayor confirmed that the exemption to the Congestion Charge was introduced to incentivise the take-up of more environmentally-friendly vehicles but that he recognised that vehicle technology has developed considerably since then. Transport for London will report their recommendations by the end of the year.
Cars such as Volvo’s C30, S40 and V50 DRIVe cars featuring Start/Stop technology might be able to travel around the country’s capital free of charge thanks to their ultra-low emissions.
Last month, Stuart Kerr, Regional President for Europe from Volvo Car Corporation wrote to The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, highlighting the disparity between the treatment of hybrid and conventional internal combustion-engined cars. In essence, drivers of hybrid cars enter the zone free of charge on a daily basis while drivers of low emission cars powered by conventional internal combustion engines with the same, or even lower, levels of emissions are charged £8.00 per day. This ‘tax’ could add a financial burden of over £2,000 per year to those drivers who have selected a traditionally-powered low emission car.
The subject of road and congestion charging was also covered by last week’s publication of the House of Commons Transport Select Committee’s ‘Taxes and charges on road users’ report. It noted that “Account should be taken of the full cost of road use, including social and environmental externalities, when considering the structure of taxes and charges on road users.”
See our thoughts on the congestion charge as it stands in our article: ‘The Green Piece; Time to review the congestion charge.’
