Environmental Sticker for Germany

General Discussion Forums Car Talk
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As regular visitors to Germany we were surprised last week to find that taking the car into Cologne required an “Environmental Sticker”. This seems similar to the new laws in France in that taking your vehicle into towns requires this sticker to be shown. Took the risk for that trip but now have one on the car ready for next time. I have not found a list of towns but the stickers are not expensive or hard to get so it seems safer to just get one and not have to worry.

It is possible to get them from sources in Germany when visiting but they can also be ordered on line. Note that Googling brings up unofficial sites which “handle” your application and charge a large fee. Genuine on line applications are handled by TUV. Fill in a form, attach a copy of your V5 and pay via credit card. My sticker arrived in four days. It costs 6 Euros if you collect in person and (from memory) 15 Euros if you want it delivered to UK.

This is the link to the ordering site

http://www.tuev-sued.de/auto_fahrzeuge/feinstaub-plakette/feinstaubplakette_ausland/england

We haven’t bothered with the French one as we just arrive at Calais and turn left for Belgium !!

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Lots of German cities require this.

Aachen, Augsburg, Berlin, Bochum, Bonn, Bottrop, Bremen, Dortmund, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Erfurt (Oct. 2012), Essen, Frankfurt am Main (and area: Offenbach, Siegen), Freiburg (Breisgau), Gelsenkirchen, Halle (Saale), Hanover, Heidelberg, Herrenberg, Ilsfeld, Karlsruhe, Köln (Cologne), Leipzig, Leonberg, Ludwigsburg, Mannheim, Mühlacker, Mülheim an der Ruhr, München (Munich), Münster, Neu-Ulm, Neuss, Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Oberhausen, Osnabrück, Pfinztal, Pforzheim, Pleidelsheim, Recklinghausen, Reutlingen, Ruhr region, Schwäbisch-Gmünd, Stuttgart, Tübingen, Ulm, Wuppertal.

Cheaper here…

https://www.tolltickets.com/country/germany/emissionsticker.aspx?lang=en-GB

Used this site a couple of years ago, fast and reliable.

French one here …

https://certificat-air.gouv.fr/en/

I believe only Paris, Lyon and Grenoble require them.

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I know you need this in France, but only in three cities so far, Paris,Lyon and one other (name escapes me at this point) It was posted a while back on here. I suspect same applies to some cities in Germany, and possibly elsewhere. Logic says London will be next, then it’s follow the leader. I avoid Cities wherever I go these days, been there, done it. Not everywhere of course, but no desire these days to see places I haven’t seen yet. Can’t afford it anyway.

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The third French city is Grenoble.

Our tendency is to use public transport in cities as it’s easier. A 24 hour pass for five people covering all transport in Cologne is 12 Euros so its not worth searching for carparks and missing out on the beer. Sometimes its unavoidable though and it’s strange that lots of travel related sites such as ferry booking, etc have lots of info about warning triangles, hi viz vests etc. but miss out on potentially expensive mistakes such as these stickers and the need to buy vignettes to travel on many trunk roads (Austria, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Switzerland and Hungary for example.

 

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The cheapest place to get the urnwelt sticker is the Berlin website for €6

https://www.berlin.de/labo/mobilitaet/kfz-zulassung/feinstaubplakette/shop.86595.en.php

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Am I missing something here? Do they refuse anybody, and if so on what grounds? This just sounds like another stealth tax hiding behind the “environmental” banner. Or if I had a 5.7 litre V8 something or other would they refuse to issue one?

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Am I missing something here? Do they refuse anybody, and if so on what grounds? This just sounds like another stealth tax hiding behind the "environmental" banner. Or if I had a 5.7 litre V8 something or other would they refuse to issue one?
 
The system is quite simple. They simply check which level of EU standard your car complies with and issue the appropriate sticker. E.g. If your car complies with emission limits 4 you get a nice green sticker. Engine size, value etc. has nothing to do with it. Different colours cover levels 2 3 and 4. If you have a car that only complies with level 1, tough, keep out of town.

The entrances to the control zones have signs showing which level is allowed to enter
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They have very strict  rules on age of cars entering cities and length of time on road and distance travelled by classic cars if yours is a classic ,

If your car is to dirt it can be foridden from entering a city but I have never seen a vehicle refused a sticker. 

I Germany you can retrofit your vehicles so that they meet new standards.