ULEZ Emissions Zone

[DriverDen]

I'm surprised to find that the MY23 Euro 6 Petrol B5 XC60 is supposed to pay the ULEZ charge when my MY19 Euro 6 D5 Diesel was exempt.

Both are exempt from the emissions zones in other cities like Birmingham.

The ULEZ suggests that most Euro 4 Petrol and Euro 6 Diesel cars after 2005 are exempt.

Has anyone queried this with tfl?

[neilgorin]

You shouldn't be paying it.

It's clearly a mistake - whether the dealer has misregistered the vehicle or TFL are picking up the wrong info you'd need to investigate.

You should be paying the Congestion Charge but definitely should not be paying the ULEZ charge, as ULEZ requires a EURO6 or later diesel or a EURO4 or later Petrol. It's been illegal to register a EURO5 car since 31/8/15 (with very limited exceptions) so your car is 100% compliant.

[TeamG]

Originally Posted by DriverDen

I'm surprised to find that the MY23 Euro 6 Petrol B5 XC60 is supposed to pay the ULEZ charge when my MY19 Euro 6 D5 Diesel was exempt.

Both are exempt from the emissions zones in other cities like Birmingham.

The ULEZ suggests that most Euro 4 Petrol and Euro 6 Diesel cars after 2005 are exempt.

Has anyone queried this with tfl?

And my son’s 16 year old Toyota Yaris is exempt….

[C320]

Originally Posted by DriverDen

I'm surprised to find that the MY23 Euro 6 Petrol B5 XC60 is supposed to pay the ULEZ charge when my MY19 Euro 6 D5 Diesel was exempt.

Both are exempt from the emissions zones in other cities like Birmingham.

The ULEZ suggests that most Euro 4 Petrol and Euro 6 Diesel cars after 2005 are exempt.

Has anyone queried this with tfl?

It shouldn't be chargeable for ULEZ - where did you get the information that it's chargeable from, was it the TFL website?

Does your vehicle have a cherished registration number on it? I've had numerous issues with the TFL site not recognising registration plates after cherished transfers. I've had to then send them a scan of all 4 pages of the V5 to get them to update their records!

[neilgorin]

Originally Posted by TeamG

And my son’s 16 year old Toyota Yaris is exempt….

It's not that complex, they based it on particulate in the exhaust - petrol cars didn't put much out after 2005/6 EURO 4, diesels didn't put much out after 2009 EURO 5 BUT because of VW everywhere in the world has erred and said 2015 EURO 6.

I heard an interview with a scientist who tested various cars and found 90% of the 2010-2015 diesels he tested would pass if manually tested but 2% of the 2015 onwards ones would still fail.

Speaking as someone who remembers even a day trip to London resulting in a hankie of black when blowing my nose as recently as the early 2000s, I think it's just a money grab though - quite clearly that doesn't happen any more, so the air has been cleaned significantly - and it's nonsense regardless as you can pay to not comply, which wouldn't be the case if it was REALLY only about health.

[ASt85]

Originally Posted by neilgorin

Speaking as someone who remembers even a day trip to London resulting in a hankie of black when blowing my nose as recently as the early 2000s, I think it's just a money grab though - quite clearly that doesn't happen any ==more, so the air has been cleaned significantly - and it is nonsense regardless as you can pay to not comply, which wouldn't be the case if it was REALLY only about health.

Oddly having spent a 15 hour day in central London last week - a late evening nose blow was black............IMHO having worked with a range of injector systems and other fuelling systems, albeit irregularly over the years, there's no diesel exhaust that at some point won't produce "smoke" even if is from the clearance of a DPF, to think that a diesel can be environmentally friendly is to completely disregard the data..............I am at a loss to understand as to how any oil burner can be ULEZ compliant - we are still paying lip service to the environmental garbage churned out by DEFRA/DoT over the last 2 decades.

[Bendolfc]

Originally Posted by neilgorin

It's not that complex, they based it on particulate in the exhaust - petrol cars didn't put much out after 2005/6 EURO 4, diesels didn't put much out after 2009 EURO 5 BUT because of VW everywhere in the world has erred and said 2015 EURO 6.

I heard an interview with a scientist who tested various cars and found 90% of the 2010-2015 diesels he tested would pass if manually tested but 2% of the 2015 onwards ones would still fail.

It's not just particulates it's also nox and most original Euro 6 diesels emit way in excess of what they should, hence why there has been so many revision to the Euro 6 standard. Mostly around the testing as NEDC was in no way reflective of the real world.

E6 Volvo engines were found to pumping out was in excess of the limits for even E5 and when WLTP and RDE testing was mandated, volvo had no choice but to stop trying to get by with using silly levels of EGR and use adblue like everyone else.

[kdst5]

The other thing being ignored in the ULEZ is the London underground. I think you will find the pollution of PM 2.5 is quite high in the underground. I find if you spend some time traveling on the underground then it results in a hankie of black when blowing my nose. Given they are trying to get people out of their cars and on public transport maybe they should start there first before extending the ULEZ?

[neilgorin]

Originally Posted by Bendolfc

E6 Volvo engines were found to pumping out was in excess of the limits for even E5 and when WLTP and RDE testing was mandated, volvo had no choice but to stop trying to get by with using silly levels of EGR and use adblue like everyone else.

I did wonder why they went to Adblue midway through the Euro 6 period, unlike other makers who started with it.

You can never have a clean fire and so can't have a completely clean exhaust whatever people like to suggest, just a cleaner one than before.

Although I'm at a loss with the rubber and brake dust pollution and how you're supposed to breath that in, given it's heavy and falls - unless you're lying in the gutter of course.

[sandys]

The hustle an bustle of everyday live shifts that, 2.5 and 10 microns is very small, no weight to it at all, if you have read the data when we have had high peaks on of PM 10 and 2.5 etc it is has happened due to events in Europe and Iceland etc getting sent our way in the wind.

I assume the non road transport data collected for particulate data is stuff like the under ground and trains, that represented ~2% in '21 vs road based of ~10%

Wood being used as domestic fuel was 17% in '21 blowing away transport altogether, I reckon 2022s data is going to come in massively higher, so many people having gone the wood burner route, and be much more of a concern.