One of the formulas used by public administrations to encourage electromobility consists of granting certain benefits to owners of electric and hybrid cars. Beyond the Moves III Plan, which subsidizes the purchase of a new or pre-owned vehicle with the Zero or Eco environmental label, the drivers of these cars enjoy other advantages. Unrestricted access to low emission zones and free parking in SER regulated zones are some of them.
These privileges, which some cities extend with a discount of up to 75% in road tax, have not been well received by everyone. The Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU) has long been demanding that the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) change the criteria for granting environmental labels, since it considers that they are not fair and that they do not correspond to reality.
A study by the OCU with a total of 147 models with different propulsion systems concludes that cars with the same environmental label can have very different emission levels. Especially, plug-in hybrid vehicles -to which the Zero label corresponds- and light hybridization copies (mild hybrid) -Eco label- are the ones that come out worst off. Their emissions do not correspond to the label given by the DGT.
Tráfico is considering introducing changes to the criteria for granting the environmental badges that it launched in 2016, but it has put them on hold for now. Everything indicates that these modifications will be carried out in the next legislature, as its general director, Pere Navarro, has insinuated in various public appearances.
Meanwhile, in France, in two of the three cities with the largest number of inhabitants, the capital Paris and Lyon, they have begun to eliminate some advantages associated with cars with the Zero and Eco labels. Municipal officials have focused especially on the vehicles that display this last label since they are the ones that present a greater disproportion in relation to the assigned environmental category.
It is evidence that the OCU already found in its report when comparing the emissions of the Audi S8 TSFI, of 571 CV (260 g/km of CO2), and of a Seat Ibiza 1.0 TSI of 110 CV (116 g/km of CO2). . While the car of the brand with the four rings corresponds to the Eco environmental badge, the Ibiza must settle for the C, which constitutes a comparative insult.
Both the Paris and Lyon municipalities have removed the free parking benefits enjoyed by electric and hybrid vehicles. From now on, drivers of cars with the Zero or Eco environmental label will have to pay to park in regulated areas. The city of Lyon is also developing a new street parking pricing system that will penalize the heaviest cars, which emit the highest emissions.
The measure, however, will not only affect cars with internal combustion engines but also plug-in cars due to the weight of the batteries they equip. In this way, the consistory led by the environmentalist Grégory Doucet, intends to promote the use of smaller vehicles within the urban environment of Lyon by corresponding with the specimens that emit fewer polluting particles.
