We all know that we're heading towards the day when our old bangers won't be allowed into city centres but just how soon is it?
The Central Government brought out Ley 7/2021 on the 20th of May which covered climatic change and energy transition. This law limited access to cities of 50,000 inhabitants or more, which works out at 149 municipalities with a total population of 24,000,000.
These towns/cities will have to have low-emission areas within them.
At present, 75% of vehicles on our roads have combustion engines (gasoline/diesel) so when these restrictions come into effect next year, it’s going to be a bit chaotic, to put it mildly. Motril, for example, has over 60,000 inhabitants, so it will be one of the towns with low emission areas; hence their attempts to turn the town centre into a pedestrian area only – you can’t get a much lower emission than that!
The vehicles affected are classified as A, B & C, which is the vast majority of vehicles plying our roads today.
But if that is not enough to boil your radiator, then beware that some towns of 20,000 or more will also be affected as times goes on. In that case, we’re talking about a measure that will affect 53% of the population of Spain, according to the Instituto Nacional de Estadística.
The truth is that hybrid cars only represent 18% of the present number of vehicles on the road. Electric cars are even fewer in number; just four percent.
The older vehicles, also known as old bangers in Brit terminology, won’t be able to enter into these restricted areas, at all, whereas B & C-classified vehicles can do so but will have to pay a toll – each Town Hall will decide on how much that will be.
So, your first thought should be, what class is my car: A, B & C, if it has a combustion engine. I, personally, am OK because my 25-year-old car doesn’t even have an engine thanks to the crankshaft committing suicide – I’m looking for a Mitsubishi Montero engine in good nick! Mind you, with what’s on the cards for next year, why bother?
(News: Spain)
As in the UK so many excess deaths down to car pollution, like the detrimental effects of consuming excessive alcohol, has been somehow socially acceptable but times are a-changing. As for folk who appear smug at the wheel of their expensive electric car they need to bear in mind the source of their electricity …. oh and the not-so-small matter that the carbon footprint associated with the manufacture of an electric car is higher than a conventionally powered one! So use your car less or walk/cycle/ catch a rare bus etc etc
This is going to be fun. France has a different system with its own stickers. Germany ditto. So a European road trip will soon mean so many stickers it won’t be possible to see out the windscreen. Assuming us foreigners can get the relevant stickers.
Hmm. So my year plus car with a C sticker on it means nowt. Should have spent the extra €14000 and gone electric. Except electric is expensive. !!