French 'CLEAN AIR' Stickers - Enjoy your visit to Paris!

General Discussion Forums Car Talk
2
Windscreen stickers which show a vehicle’s emissions levels have become a legal requirement in several key French cities including Paris.
British drivers heading to the France capital are advised by the RAC that driving without a France 'clean air' sticker – which costs as little as £3.20 – makes them culpable for an on-the-spot fine of up to £117.

Drivers of non-French-registered vehicles though, have been offered a degree of leniency – given until March 31 to fully comply with the Crit’Air initiative. An English language section of the government website responsible for stickers launches on February 1.

The scheme in Paris began on January 15, while those in Lyon and Grenoble have been running since the start of the year.

The Crit’Air initiatives require all cars, motorbikes and lorries to display a windscreen sticker relating to their green credentials.

On days in the cities where pollution levels are particularly high, it is those which emit the highest levels of harmful gasses which will be denied entry.

Vehicles have been classed in six categories; from Crit’Air 1 (electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles) to Crit’Air 6 (mostly older, diesel cars). These categories correspond to the EU emission standards set 25 years ago when Euro-1 was introduced.

To complete an online application, drivers will need to know their vehicle’s European Emissions Standard.

RAC European breakdown spokesman Simon Williams says: "British motorists travelling to Paris, Lyon and Grenoble need to make sure they don’t get caught out by the new Crit’Air scheme that has come into force.

"The scheme requires vehicles to have an emissions sticker clearly visible on the windscreen. The penalty for not displaying one is an on-the-spot fine of between €68 and €135 (about £58 to £117).

"Foreign vehicles will be allowed to drive in central Paris without the sticker until 31 March, but our advice is to apply for one as soon as it is possible – from 1 February at the official Crit’Air website (your search engine should let you translate the site to English).

"We are aware of third-party websites already selling stickers for substantially more than French drivers are being charged by the French government, which motorists need to be wary of.

“From the beginning of February, the onus will be on UK car owners to check the Euro emissions standard of their vehicle by checking this table, visit the official Crit’Air website and apply for a sticker. We’d recommend drivers do this well before they intend to travel so they don’t run the risk of driving without one.”

The RAC understands that around one in 10 French vehicles are too old to get a sticker – with certain models not even assigned a category. These cars are not permitted to drive in Paris between 8am and 8pm, Monday to Friday.

Models registered before 1997, motorbikes and scooters from before June 2000, and trucks and buses from before 2001 are the main offenders in terms of emissions.

As many as 22 other French towns have signalled their interest in making a similar move over the next three years.

 

http://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/law-change-for-uk-drivers-in-french-cities/

3

Thanks Steve for a very important and helpful post!!!

4

Thanks for the warning !

Chris Phillips.

5

Cheers Steve, a very timely heads up with the Spring, Summer holiday period approachin.

Jeff.

6

Interesting stuff for us froggies, but this is the first time I have seen it

Will check it out with my french friends and come back with more info

I found this link for non french to apply for cert

https://www.certificat-air.gouv.fr/demande-ext/cgu/

Frog

7

How will the French authorities check if you have the correct sticker? What’s to stop you getting a sticker for a car with lower emissions (or is that determined automatically on the website)? I also wonder how they enforce this. Are there checkpoints at which gendarmes will check your sticker before letting you through? The other thing is that emissions are often influenced by how well a car is maintained, hence it is possible an older car may actually have lower emissions than the ‘official’ figures. A bit like fuel consumption figures, I suspect standard emissions are based on a lab set up rather than real world driving.

8

You have to supply an online version of your registration doc when you apply, this info will no doubt be stored and accessible to “les Gendarmerie” in the same way that our VED registration info is stored and accessible to our police.

9

Latest from France
Had a word with my local garagiste who gave a gallic shrug and said it was for the parisiennes not for us in the country. So it is a law that will take time to get down to everybody. So unless you are driving into central Paris or the middle of Lyon - don’t worry- the french don’t. I have not see a single Crit air sticker on a car so far.
will continue to monitor the situation
Frog

10

 

I just LOVE the French attitude!

11

Bit of a quandary if you drive a VW.

12

It’s really just another way to screw the motorist - and I thought the British government was bad !

13

Just bought a similar one for Munich

14

We seem to be on course for a 21st century version of the “Clean Air Act” what with London’s recent pollution levels being the highest on record.  Who else remembers the “Pea-souper” smogs of the 40’s and 50’s?

15

On my first day back in the UK in 1965 (much cleaner air than the 1950s) after fifteen years abroad, I remember putting on a clean white shirt after a bath, going out for dinner in London and finding the collar was black when I took it off three hours later.  This came as a bit of a shock having grown up in Africa where the shirts remained clean, and just got a bit sweaty if worn for a couple of days.

And now they want to make it worse with a third runway at Heathrow.

16

 

 

Oh boy - now you’ve done it Richard !

 

17

Us outsiders didn’t refer to London as “The Big Smoke” for nothing, times don’t change a lot after all.

I don’t see it as 'Another way to screw the motorist" it’s a sensible thing to do, and bear in mind, in another thread, The Frog reported they don’t pay VED in France, so think on that.

While it may not interest many, I never paid VED in Canada - registration was yearly, by buying a new set of plates, cost IIRC was around $22 per year. (each plate had the current year stamped on it)

Everybody knows that VED was introduced to keep roads in good condition, and we all know where that actually goes.

Watch-out, here comes another hole - - - -

 

18

 

Didn’t they/do they, have a similar system in the USA?  I also seem remember seeing photos of inter-state trucks with multiple State registration plates?

19

Here it used to be called a ‘Road Fund Licence’ -self explanatory, now it’s just Car Tax.

In Australia they call it ‘Regio’ but it does include third party insurance - you top up to comp if you want to, choose your own insurance company.

20

I have ordered one for each of my MX5’s. Apparently other major cities will be joining the scheme so as we will be going through Rouen in August and possibly in June when we join up with the French for a weekend, it seemes safer to do it now. The cost for both cars was 9.30 Euros.